Published on Mar 19 2010 by Yousaf Aftab

Outside Contributions

Several hundred pounds worth of contributions were kindly donated by personal friends of the volunteers, local businesses and long standing friends of AMYA. In one instance a member of one of Yorkshire's largest confectionaries approached one of our street collectors and placed a handful of notes into his collection box. The generous lady then returned a few minutes later and handed the same volunteer a large bag full of coins separated into bank wallets. We later opened the bag and it appeared to be all of the float change from one of her shop tills.

In another inspiring incident a couple of kind hearted men passed one of AMYA’s collection tables in Bradford city centre who appeared to be beggars. They then proceeded to empty a large amount of coins from their rucksacks into a collection bucket.

Friends and work colleagues of volunteers were especially kind and contributed more than £100 through the National Just Giving web page. Sovereign Healthcare of Bradford, the official sponsor or the 2009 AMYA Charity Challenge and close friends of AMYA, kindly contributed £250. We are also grateful for the kind donations made at one of our local schools and by the staff of Virgin Media and Enterprise rent-a-car who collectively collected more than £1,400.

The Nazim Khidmat-e-Khalq of Bradford South initiated a fantastic collection scheme in a secondary school which was blessed to such an extent that it raised more than £1,100 in kind contributions from students, parents and staff.

More than £2,000 was kindly donated through both the Regional and National Just Giving web pages. The added benefit of using this method is that 28 pence is added by the Government to every pound donated by a UK tax payer.

The Regional and local contributions combined reached a total of more than £13,000. The Qiadat collections were roughly as follows:

Media Coverage

During the Haiti Appeal campaign, AMYA North East produced a press release on what we are doing and when we’ll be collecting next, and sent it to local and regional media contacts.

The collections and NBS session was covered across the region by both local and regional newspapers. There were also two interviews with volunteers aired on ITV’s Calendar News and hourly bulletins broadcast on Sunrise Radio.

What Does This All Mean?

AMYA North East set themselves a target of £10,000 for Haiti Appeal after hearing about the devastating situation in Haiti. With prayers, hard work and dedication of Regional Qaid (Yousaf Aftab), Regional Nazim Khidmat-e-Khalq (Akeel Amini) and their teams, AMYA North East achieved their target within 16 days. All of the donations will be sent to Haiti via Humanity First and, Insha’Allah, all of the hard work of Khuddam and Atfal will help save many lives.

The collections provided all of the members of AMYA another vital opportunity to come together as brothers and help to carry our one key part of the mission assigned to them by Almighty Allah, His Prophet^saw, the Promised Messiah^as, and Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih^atba. Each and every volunteer is testament to the great spiritual blessings attached to charitable actions carried out for the sake of Almighty Allah alone. We feel greatly blessed and privileged that Almighty Allah chose our members, along with our brothers, sisters and colleagues across the UK, to raise money for this noble appeal.

We are only just into 2010 and so it is the hope of AMYA NE that we can work with the rest of AMYA UK over the next twelve months to carry on flying the flag of Ahmadiyyat through service to mankind, Insha'Allah. Ameen. Regional Qaid North East, his Majlis-e-Amila and the whole of the North East Region humbly request your prayers for our continued success.

And our final supplication is, and can only be, Alhamdulillah.