Celebration of volunteers’ contributions at Deeplish community Centre

Date published: 26 October 2022

Volunteers were recognised and rewarded with an awards ceremony at Deeplish Community Centre on Friday 14 October.

Guests of honour were the Mayor of Rochdale Councillor Ali Ahmed and the Mayor’s consort Sultan Ali. They also presented awards and certificates to all the volunteers.

Deeplish Community Centre organised the volunteers’ event to appreciate the excellent contributions and work carried out by volunteers throughout the year with various projects.

Mayor Ali Ahmed said: “It is great to see the efforts made by each volunteer in supporting local projects and people at Deeplish Community Centre and I am delighted to present awards and certificates to volunteers from all projects.

“Volunteering is incredibly rewarding for those who do it and by supporting the awards, I want to continue to encourage and support those who are building and strengthening our communities.

Mohammed Saqib, trustee of Deeplish Community Centre, highlighted the importance of voluntary work and contributions made by the volunteers in running programmes at the centre.

He said: “We are always grateful for our volunteers help and support in running our projects and schemes. All our volunteers receive induction, training and opportunities in making a lasting difference in the lives of people and projects.”

Mohammed Hamza, a volunteer at Deeplish Play Scheme, gave a very useful presentation and insight into this year’s Easter and summer programmes. He highlighted how the children and young people’s engagement and programme has supported many children and young people in improving participation in sports, arts and wellbeing programmes.

He explained how this has helped them in keeping active, safe and well connected with friends and community centre.

Faiza Qureshi, another volunteer and trained health professional at Deeplish, explained how the community centre has supported health and wellbeing programmes with the help of staff and volunteers specially cancer awareness and art for wellbeing programmes for the local community.

She also gave a detailed presentation about looking after children’s health.

Sohail Ahmad JP, operations manager at Deeplish Community Centre, commented that volunteer engagement and empowerment is a "key part of all our projects and activities."

He said: "We are very proud of our volunteers’ contributions and thankful for Action Together’s support in celebrating volunteer’s success at the centre."

Chair of Deeplish Community Centre, Mohammed Saleem JP added: “We are proud to celebrate the good work in form of recognition to these volunteers and we’ve been amazed by the tremendous work of the volunteers over the past 12 months. It really is an honour to be able to put the spotlight on these inspirational individuals. I thank everyone for supporting our participants, people and community during difficult times and we are set once again to continue in our efforts to support everyone in coming months and years.”