Community heroes receive honours from the Queen
A Britwell interfaith campaigner and a delivery driver who helped vulnerable residents during lockdown have received honours.
The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 was revealed on Friday and gave 1,495 honours to people across the country. The majority of the list was completed before the pandemic but it was deferred to consider nominations for those playing crucial roles in the first few months of COVID-19. It has prioritised frontline and community heroes that went ‘above and beyond’ to help others. Here are some of those who got an award in South Bucks, the Royal Borough and Slough.
BRITWELL: A community campaigner who has dedicated her life to bringing different faith communities together and empowering women has been awarded an MBE.
Britwell resident Julie Siddiqi earned recognition in the latest Queen’s Birthday Honours for her work promoting interfaith understanding.
Since moving to Slough in 1996, the 49-year-old has set up a number of initiatives promoting community cohesion.
This includes the NisaNashim Jewish and Muslim Women’s Network, which aims to help women from both faiths understand their similarities.
She also founded Sadaqa Day to encourage mosques, community groups and individuals to give back to the areas they live on a day of social action.
She has also been outspoken on knife crime.
One of her latest projects, Together We
Thrive, has connected Muslim women with women from different faith communities with the aim of improving female leadership and oppor tunities.
Julie told the Express: “My big thing is about encouraging people to become friends because through that you develop trust, they become your allies and when there’s a problem you know you’ve got people around you who can stand up for you.
“It’s not necessarily about me. All of what I have done has always been about working with lots of different people from different backgrounds, different ages and different faiths.
“That’s what I love and I will still carry on as long as I can.”
Visit https://togetherwethrive.co.uk/project/thrive-together for details.
IVER HEATH: Delivery driver Alex Osei Bonsu came to the rescue of elderly and vulnerable people who could not get their food shopping done during the nationwide lockdown.
The Iver Heath resident realised while working at Beaconsfield Waitrose that many people were either unable to leave their homes or place online orders.
The 49-year-old set up a system where he collected orders from customers in need by email or phone.
He then shopped and paid for the goods and enlisted volunteers from his own charity, The Christian Eye Foundation, to arrange deliveries throughout Buckinghamshire.
More than 100 vulnerable or isolated people have benefited from the service so far, with many receiving weekly deliveries.
Alex received a BEM (British Empire Medal) for services to the community.
He said: “It’s amazing that I have been recognised for the work that I have done and it’s lifted up the name of The Christian Eye Foundation. If you are a Christian then your aim is to serve.”
ASCOT: A professor who has been awarded an MBE for services to education says he owes ‘a lot of this to my grandson.’
Professor David Michael Lewis, from Ascot, has been leading Riverston School in London for 40 years and decided to ‘embrace children with additional learning needs’ into the school about a decade ago after his grandson Harry was born with severe autism.
“The trauma and emotional angst we have been going through as a family trying to learn how to cope with this wonderful little boy made me realise I should be doing something a little bit special,” he said.
Riverston School now supports more than 100 pupils with exceptional needs.
SLOUGH: Rashida Baig, from Slough, took over as Croydon Council’s head of social work with families in April last year and has helped transform the service.
In recognition of her work she has been given an MBE.
Ofsted inspectors found the council’s services for children and families had ‘dramatically improved’ when they carried out a visit in March, leading to a ‘Good’ overall rating.
Rashida, a mother-ofthree, received praise for helping to reduce caseloads and the number of children needing protection plans.
The 57-year-old’s work promoting racial equality has continued into her Croydon role, making sure families do not suffer disadvantage as a result of institutional inequalities including their race, ethnicity, gender or immigration status.
She said: “Throughout my career I have been committed to equality of opportunity in the way we design and deliver services. Tackling racism in all its forms has been central to everything I have done as a social worker including valuing children’s heritage and identity and making sure where possible they remain in their family and communities whether in the UK or elsewhere.”