Chigwell Teenager wins Redbridge Young Citizen of the Year Award

 

Hannah Chowdhry with her Young Citizen Award trophy and certificate


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Due to COVID-19 Hannah was not invited to the usual Redbridge Town Hall Award ceremony and instead had her prize posted to her this week.  Today (20th October) Hannah administered and minuted the Chigwell Row Residents Association public meeting. Hannah is one of the Editors for the CRRA newsletter and helps write many of our blog posts. Below is the press release produced by Redbridge Rotary:

16-year-old Hannah Chowdhry cares passionately about making a difference to her community. During the coronavirus pandemic, she is on the frontline helping at a daily project to feed the homeless and vulnerable in Ilford, East London as the youngest volunteer for the British Asian Christian Association.

Hannah started volunteering at the association’s food bank and Meals for the Homeless project in January 2020, which included cooking meals for the rough sleepers and putting herself through a food safety course.

She has built up a strong bond with many of the rough sleepers, including Dee, an army veteran who was shot in the back in Afghanistan and has been living on the streets for five years.

He said: “I want to thank Hannah for everything she’s done for me. She took me shopping, she’s taught me how to cook, she’s taught me food hygiene and she even helps out at the homeless unit to feed us homeless people, she’s taken every little step to help us and I want to thank her very much."

At secondary school, Hannah became aware that some pupils were using legal highs, so she started a campaign that led to the creation of a borough-wide reporting portal to help map drug-related crime.

Hannah is also a long-term campaigner against knife crime and now sits on a youth reference panel for the Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime. Last year, Hannah organised a knife crime summit involving local police and crime prevention organisations as well as relatives of victims of knife crime.

Concerned by the number of knife crimes as well as cuts to youth services, Hannah raised the funds to open a non-alcoholic “chill out lounge” for teenagers at Clementswood Community Centre in the most deprived area of the borough of Redbridge to give young people a safe place to hang out in Ilford. She is both an Essex and a Redbridge Youth Councillor.

Hannah is a former pupil of Kantor King Solomon High School, but now attends Davenant High School in year 12.

Redbridge Rotary were so impressed by Hannah’s community work that they nominated her for a Rotary Young Citizen Award.

Hannah said: "As a passionate anti-knife crime advocate, I am extremely concerned about the rising level of violent crime we are seeing on the streets of London and Essex. I feel very honoured to receive the Rotary Young Citizen Award. I know that rotarians are doing their hard work to defeat polio around the world. And then for them to notice me doing my work for the community makes me feel special. So I'd like to thank them for giving me this award.”

Redbridge Rotary Club meets every Tuesday evening at Luigi’s Restaurant, 5 Beehive Lane, Ilford, IG1 3RG at 7pm for 7.30pm start.

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