Bradford based charity for single mothers, NEESIE, last week became the first South Asian led charity, to be chosen among the prestigious ‘The Rotary Club of Bradford Bronte’ as one of their charities for the year.
NEESIE is led by Noreen Khan, who, herself a single mother, is the director of the organisation.
The charity aims to help empower and provide support for single mums across the globe. The Bradford based charity has been growing year on year and gaining popularity for helping hard-working mothers.
Asian Standard spoke to Noreen, to know about the momentous achievement.
Noreen Khan is a Rotarian herself, and one of the youngest in the group.
“It’s absolutely brilliant for my organisation NEESIE to be selected. It is simply phenomenal to be one of the first South Asian led charity selected by such a massive establishment, it’s not a local or a regional establishment. It’s an international establishment so, being selected as an organisation and be represented to raise funds for our cause, I am really proud.
“It gives me a huge motivation, because it means that the reach of our process is far and wide, I think firstly financially, but more importantly in terms of raising the awareness of the plight of single mothers. By allowing NEESIE to be on the platform, such as Rotary, such distinguished platform, it allows us to have a massive marketing reach, to people of influence, to leaders across the globe and of course locally, within our own rotary club in Bradford as well. I think it is going to have a huge impact, in terms of our links and connections.
“It’ll also help us raise funds, in our mission to support vulnerable single mothers”.
NEESIE, was started by Noreen Khan in 2016.
“This was after a few years, of me trying to find a network for single mothers in Bradford, unfortunately I couldn’t find anything,” Noreen says.
“It also comes back from a personal story, me as a single mother, returning to Bradford and realising that there’s still a lot of taboo against single mothers, that they were shunned upon. I felt that it was necessary for someone to start a movement, to allow single mothers a platform for prosperity as well, to give them a space to grow economically and emotionally in the city, to further influence the educational achievement of their children as well.
NEESIE, flagship programme for single mothers, ‘Mothers Achieving Together’ on 21 July, had held a graduation ceremony.
‘Mothers Achieving Together’, a programme is run by NEESIE, in partnership with Maximus and schools across the district to develop good relationships with parents to support their child’s learning. The programme is designed to close gaps in achievement by laying the foundations with parents and their children and aiding their education.
The course is run over a ten-week period helping participants build their skills and confidence for a better and more financially stable future.
More than two dozen mothers participated in the course and graduated on 21 July Friday with certificates presented to them at an official graduation ceremony.
Speaking about a possibility of more such programmes, Noreen says, “Absolutely, there is a possibility, this is one of the main outcomes of being on of the Rotarian chosen charity. The Rotary club will support one of the programmes in future. The club will also be able to provide a programme or two. So, it’s an amazing achievement, being a part of the club.
“The recent graduation ceremony itself, the space it got on Asian Standard, it gave us a huge opportunity in terms of raising awareness on what we do. We had so many contacts coming to us, from schools, parents, and teachers, saying that they want to find out more. I am very grateful to Fatima Patel (Editor in Chief of Asian Standard and Asian Sunday) for allowing us the space to do so, her speech as a keynote speaker was so inspirational for all the mothers to hear.
“So, I think it’s a combined triangular success, between NEESIE, Asian Standard and the mothers. We are just trying to increase aspirational levels of the mothers, in the community, because we know that would lead to success in the future generations as well.”
Noreen adds, “I am very proud to be a Rotarian myself, I want to utilise this opportunity if I may to help others. It provides me such an honour and privilege to be a Rotarian in Bradford where we know that, globally there are not a lot of South Asian female Rotarian. I really want to raise awareness to allow the space for other South Asian females thinking about becoming a Rotarian”.
