Batley volunteers take action for Palestine charities

Volunteer Anjum Ullah and friends were inspired to take action after seeing images of the re-ignited Israeli-Palestinian conflict on television.

A fundraising event was held at Batley Carr Scouts headquarters in Track Road on Saturday in support of local branches of One Nation and World Charity Organisation, which supply medical aid and food to the stricken region.

An auction was held with prizes, including meal vouchers and pamper treatments, donated from many local businesses.

Solicitor Anjum, 31, of Maythorne Avenue, Batley, said: “People were willing to do everything because there’s such a big awareness.”

She said it was great to see collective, community efforts for charities that did “such tremendous work.”

Mother Rashida Jasat said: “Ordinary people have been really, really united with us since we started this two weeks ago.”

Volunteers working alongside Anjum and Rashida included Raza Ullah, Mariam Omar, Faizal Mira and Asif Mira.

Saturday’s fundraiser, which also featured children’s activities, was combined with celebrations for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr.

The campaigners set up social networking appeals, rang businesses for contributions and made more than 100 t-shirts emblazoned with a ‘Free Palestine’ slogan. These were made with sponsorship from Al-Murad Tiles in Batley.

Contributions were also made by Miliweb Studio and Impress Printers.

Visit https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/savepalestine to make a donation.