Foundation set up to honour first British Muslim head teacher wins Prime Minister’s award

2 May 2014 01:06 PM

A foundation set up in honour of Nawazish Bokhari is the latest winner of the Prime Minister’s Big Society Award. 

A foundation set up in honour of Nawazish Bokhari, an inspirational headteacher and campaigner who was the first British Muslim to run a UK secondary school, is the latest winner of the Prime Minister’s Big Society Award.

The award comes as Naz Legacy Foundation launches their new Diversity Programme at the National Portrait Gallery. School children from various communities will visit the gallery for the first time and will look in to the lives and experiences of positive role models from diverse backgrounds who have made an impact in the UK.

The Naz Legacy Foundation, founded by Nawazish’s children Hina and Harris Bokhari, aims to continue his work inspiring young people to achieve their potential, promoting excellence in education and programmes spearheading positive integration into society.

The foundation is made up of a group of educationalists, philanthropists and community leaders and has raised over £1 million for educational projects benefitting some of the most deprived communities in the UK, including mentoring over 2,000 young people in over 100 schools and institutions across the length and breadth of the UK.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

Naz Legacy foundation is doing fantastic work to ensure young people across the UK are able to fulfil their potential.

The National Portrait Gallery programme is yet another example of how the foundation is securing the legacy of an inspirational teacher, Nawazish Bokhari. I’m delighted to be recognising the hard work of everyone at the foundation with this Big Society Award.

Hina Bokhari and Harris Bokhari, Founders, Naz Legacy Foundation said:

We are delighted to have won a Big Society Award. Our father was a champion for young people. He believed that every young person – no matter what their background or circumstances - deserved the best quality of education available. We are honoured that his legacy continues in the work of the foundation and we are reminded of this advice to us as children that ‘it is not what you do in your lifetime that really matters, it is the legacy you leave behind for the next generations to follow that makes a difference’.