Press Release - 22 March 2004

Funding conference to benefit community projects

A major national campaign, which brings grant awarding bodies together with Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups to learn about the community work of these religious organisations, held the last in a series of four regional seminars in Manchester yesterday. Previous events have been held in Yorkshire, London and Wales with great success.

The event, entitled 'Faith Groups and Grant Givers Seminar', was organised by QED, the Bradford based national charity that campaigns for social and economic improvements for disadvantaged South Asian communities. The Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales supports the campaign, which has been running for two years. Its objectives are to encourage faith groups to apply for grants to fund their community projects as well as to raise awareness amongst grant givers of the extensive contributions such faith groups make to society in addressing poverty and disadvantage.

"Relatively very few grants are awarded to faith groups in general and one of the main reasons for this is a lack of appreciation of the vital role they play in non-religious activities" said Mohammed Ali, OBE, Chief Executive QED-UK "We decided to run these seminars to bring people together to understand each others contribution and to see a way forward working together"

The seminar, attended by over 40 representatives of fund awarding bodies from public and private sectors heard presentations from well-informed speakers including Mr David Kay, Regional Manager of the Lloyds TSB Foundation, who welcomed the guests and said that the foundation encourages applications from all sectors of society; Dr Ranjit Singh Sumra, a Consultant Neurophysiologist, who outlined the lack of resources enabling groups to explain the non-religious aspects of their work and how they needed support in this area; Mr A K Sinha, a tireless representative of the Hindu community in the North West, who explained the community activities of Hindu groups and Cllr Afzal Khan who serves local communities and is a spokesperson for the Council of British Muslims. Mr Khan outlined the contribution of Muslim communities and explained the hub of activity that takes place around a mosque.

"This was a unique opportunity to exchange views and QED are to be congratulated in taking this initiative." Said Christopher Graves, Director of The Tudor Trust, an independent grant-making charitable trust, which exists to enhance people's quality of life. "I thoroughly enjoyed the event and learnt a great deal about the contribution faith groups can make to the well-being and confidence of the communities which they serve."

For further details about the event please contact Mohammed Ali, OBE on 01274 483267