An eight-year-old girl from Crosland Moor is to receive an award for her amazing fundraising for Huddersfield Street Kitchen.
Emaan Hamna Ibrahim will be one of 24 children and young people to receive a British Citizen Youth Award for how they’ve made a positive impact on their communities and wider society.
Emann will be presented with the BCYA Medal of Honour at The Palace of Westminster on October 12.
Emaan has raised over £1,450 for the Huddersfield Street Kitchen and is determined to continue to raise more.
At the age of six, Emaan watched the pantomime ‘Robin Hood’ and the ‘take from the rich, give to the poor’ philosophy really struck a chord.
Becoming aware of social differences at a young age, Emaan wanted to help those in need in her local area. With help from her mum Nusrat she got in touch with the street kitchen to volunteer.
Huddersfield Street Kitchen founder Danny Burrows with Emaan
Emaan wanted to independently raise money for the street kitchen and had always loved collecting beads.
She came up with the idea to make jewellery and sell it on Instagram and donated the proceeds to the Huddersfield Street Kitchen. In her first week she sold 80 bracelets and spent her entire Christmas holidays fulfilling orders.
As well as fundraising, Emaan is making around 20 food packages every week, shopping, packing and distributing the items herself.
Being so close to the needs of the charity, Emaan recognised the importance of having basic hygiene products available for all, so decided to start creating hygiene packs and distributing them to those in need.
The BCYA Medal of Honour bears the words ‘For the Good of the Country’ and is presented to only a small number of exceptional young individuals annually.
Mum Nusrat said: “We are really proud of her.”
One of Emaan’s supporters is Happy Monkey Smoothies and spokesman Simon Gray said: “Emaan is an incredible young person who has been selflessly carrying out invaluable work in her community and when Emaan’s mum approached us we were delighted to get involved.
“Emaan has deserved this award for all her kindness and commitment and Happy Monkey look forward to supporting Emaan in all her future causes.”
