Muslim Students have formed the London Community Impacts Projects Group. On the 15th of October 2016, they put together the first ever homeless fair providing haircuts, healthcare and hope for London's homeless...
An overcast Saturday in the middle of October marked London’s first ever Autumn Fair for the homeless. A team of 15 Muslim students along with over 20 volunteers successfully provided health care, career advice, hot and cold food, clothing and hygiene services to a number of London’s most deprived citizens.
The event “Streets of London: Supporting Our People” was inspired by the group’s frustration over the marginalisation of homeless people across the capital. With rent prices rocketing and social housing almost impossible to access, the number of citizens taking to the streets is rapidly increasing. With this in mind, the group wanted “to create a humanising experience” by generating longevity in the services they provided. Whether that’s through hygiene education enabling people to keep clean on the streets or employment provided by London’s Unseen Tours Company. Helping the homeless fight their way out of the poverty cycle remained the core value driving the students to success.
The volunteers are locally known as the London Community Impacts Projects Group, a collaborative ensemble including members from each community impact project across the University of London’s several colleges. From King’s College ‘The Ark Project’, Queen Mary’s ‘Rock Projects’ and UCL’s Outreach Programme; the team also includes students from the London School of Economics, Bart’s and St George’s University Hospital. The group began preparations as early as July, after being inspired by the impressive work of local Muslim charities such as Children of Adam and the outreach initiatives by all the London University Islamic Societies.
Over 8,000 people sleep rough on the streets of London every year, with several attempts being made through the years to help those in need with clothing drives and community dinners. However, these efforts never really tackled the problem head on or tried to find ways to get these Londoner's off the streets for good. Therefore, the team began writing their event proposal, with clothing racks, lunch provisions and gift bags for all their guests; organisation certainly proved a colossal task. An Amazon Wish List alongside a Just Giving page was set up in order to raise funds for the event, in which the group took to Facebook to spread awareness and invite other students to volunteer their time and skills too.
As pioneers of such an event in London, lots of interest and support was generated for the team and the cause online. From brands such as Lush kindly donating a variety of sanitary products and professional hairdressers giving up their time to volunteer their services. Even the student’s own universities, such as King’s College, donated several boxes of unsold clothing and merchandise.
With hairdressers recruited, qualified doctors on the scene, freshly cooked food ready to serve and mountains of books and clothing unboxed; the event was guaranteed to be an outright success. However, with just 5 days to go, Camden Council who authorised the use of Lincoln Inn Field, suddenly retracted their offer due to some logistical issues. As if organising such a monumental event was not enough chaos, the plan which proceeded involved cancelling each stall which proved an even harder conundrum. Alhamdullilah a new venue at Victoria Embankment Terrace kindly provided by Westminster Council at the last minute set the scene for the successful event, which attracted in excess of 100 homeless citizens.
Ultimately, the desire to serve humanity and in turn please God through consistent acts of kindness took the central focus of the group’s intention when organising the day. The event proved an excellent showcase of what it truly means to practise Islam, by helping our neighbours, showing compassion, and giving up time and resources to benefit society as a whole. The team even created small leaflets for each guest’s gift-bag which outlined the Islamic principles behind why they organised such an event, allowing greater understanding of Islam and Muslims to spread across the community and subsequently tackle Islamophobia, one good deed at a time.
"They ask you, [O Muhammad], what they should spend. Say, "Whatever you spend of good is [to be] for parents and relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveler. And whatever you do of good - indeed, Allāh is Knowing of it." {Q. 2:215}
The event was run by London Community Impacts Project. Check out their Facebook page to learn more about their work: facebook.com/LondonCIP
Author: Sara Zubair
