Breaking down barriers, integrating the new into society, being a set of ears to the needy… Rukhsana Hussain explains to Luke Smith why her charity work is so much more than a job.
Rukhsana Hussain at the award ceremonyIn a world of turbulent times, both politically and socially, it is sometimes difficult to stand up for what you believe and help those people who just need a little bit of help, somebody to guide them through troubled times, or even just somebody who wants to sit and listen to their problems. Rukhsana Hussain, a charity worker based in Leicestershire, has no problems ticking all the boxes in making our local community a better and more tolerable place to live.
Rukhsana’s charitable endeavors began two-and-a-half years ago, when she began work with Asylum seekers, explaining to me how she set up an organisation called ‘Hope 4 Humanity’, which is now in the process of being registered as a charity.
“Hope 4 Humanity is in the process of becoming a charity, that works locally with refugees and asylum seekers that are newly arrived to the UK. It’s more to do with integration, settling them, and supplying them with the life skills they may not have acquired. We do also work with those who have also been here for a few years also, but we do tend to concentrate on those who are newly arrived.
“It was me and a friend who set that up originally, working with some local volunteers, and it’s taken us to this point to now get a third person involved so that we can now set Hope 4 Humanity up officially.
“Since that point, we have also started up an initiative called ‘Speak Out’, which is all based on anti-bullying and just raising awareness, trying to do some presentations in different parts of the community. It can sometimes be quite difficult to get into the communities, especially as I work with a number of ethnic minorities, so it can sometimes be quite difficult to get in and see what’s going on. It’s all about breaking down the barriers and helping them have the confidence they need to recognise the problem, open up about it, and then seek the help”
Her charitable work continued into the area of domestic violence, a vicious and destructive issue that will affect 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in their lifetime.
Domestic Violence is clearly an act on the rise, with as many as two women per week being murdered through domestic violence, and thirty men per year. It also has the most repeat offences than any other crime, with it taking an average of thirty-five assaults before the victim calls the police. Although Rukhsana only works with Leicestershire, those UK figures clearly show that domestic abuse is on the rise all around.
Rukhsana is tackling the issue in the Leicester area by supporting victims.
“It’s not official support, it’s just letting people know that I am there.
“I think that the biggest thing to me is over the years, mental health has increased so rapidly. It’s everywhere. Whether I’m working with victims of domestic violence, whether I’m working with children, whether it’s anti-bullying, whatever I do, it’s all tailored around mental health.”
Rukhsana is no stranger to publicity, and with her exemplary charity record and ever growing lists of awards, is it any wonder? She has been recognised for her work with the Wonderwoman 2017 award, a Leicestershire Heroes 2017 nomination, an East Midlands Women’s Award 2017 nomination, and that’s just to name a few of the awards Rukhsana has been nominated for or won for her incredible charity work.
“Through all of my work, I was awarded the Wonderwoman 2017 award (an International Women’s Award), which was really good because it was so unexpected! I was also up for the Leicestershire Heroes Award 2017. We were finalists, we didn’t win, but it was great to be there anyway because I did notice that out of the people there, there weren’t many Muslims there, so it was quite an achievement for us to break those barriers because not only were we Muslim, but women too!”
Rukhsana’s love for helping others and working within the community has ventured into reducing hate crime in the Leicester area, through the charity MEND (Muslim Engagement and Development team).
“There was a suspected hate crime last month in Beaumont Leys, so we decided that we would hold an event because there is a lot of under reporting. The importance of MEND and the hate crime awareness meetings is to make sure that everybody knows: what is a hate crime, and if they do suffer this kind of crime, or if they see it happening somewhere else, how can they report it.”
Leicestershire Police define a hate crime as: “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s actual, or perceived, disability, race, religion / faith, sexual orientation and or/transgender
Leicestershire Police is currently running a hate crime prevention programme called Stamp It Out and is encouraging anybody suffering hate crime to call 999 or 101 in non-emergency situations.
