Mohammed Mamdani

Not to be confused with Mahmood Mamdani.

Mohammed S. Mamdani
محمد صدیق ممداني
Mamdani speaking about poverty in September, 2013
Born	(1983-02-08) February 8, 1983 London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Other names	MSM
Education	Richmond College University of Oxford SOAS, University of London
Occupation(s)	Social entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Activist
Years active	2001-present
Organization	Sufra
Known for	Social entrepreneurship within the Muslim Community
Notable work	Muslim Youth Helpline Ansar Youth Project Al-Mizan Charitable Trust Sufra
Website	sufra-nwlondon.org.uk almizantrust.org.uk ansaryouth.org.uk myh.org.uk

Mohammed Sadiq Mamdani (born 8 February 1983) is a British Muslim social entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and activist, who is currently the interim director for Sufra. He is known for his extensive work in founding charitable organisations. Mohammed is an advocate on youth issues, particularly those affecting young people from minority communities and has stated he combines his experience from everything he's done to challenge cultural taboos around social issues and empower young people to play an active role in their communities.

Career

2001-2004: Muslim Youth Helpline

Mohammed began his career in the voluntary sector at the age of 18 years whilst studying for his A-levels, when he founded the award-winning charity Muslim Youth Helpline in February 2001. This is today considered the Muslim community’s premier youth counselling service in the UK. It was at college that Mohammed first realised the extent of isolation that today's young Muslims experience; while problems such as drug misuse, depression and sexuality are issues common among many young people, he believed that young Muslims often need advice that takes into account broader religious and social contexts, which is why he created the helpline.

After helping to secure its financial base, Mamadani retired as a trustee of MYH to take up fresh challenges: he became a trustee of the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, a charity that promotes social entrepreneurship by offering financial awards and support packages to individuals with creative ideas for achieving social objectives.

2005-2010: Ansar Youth Project & Queen's Crescent Community Association

4 years after Muslim Youth Helpline, Mamdani set up Ansar Youth Project, a community based model in faith and culturally sensitive youth-work as a response to the 7/7 London bombings. He had been the Head of Operations of Ansar Youth Project until 2009. Also, between 2005-2007 Mohammed was appointed to the Board of Trustees for UnLtd, the Foundation of Social Entrepreneurs.

During January 2010, Mamdani was employed as a Capacity Building Manager and Head of Youth Services at Queen's Crescent Community Association. Mamdani joined QCCA in an effort to increase his experience and knowledge on how to run charitable organisations, primarily those who support disadvantaged people. He wanted to set up organisations which tackle homelessness, food poverty in the United Kingdom, debt amongst other communal problems. Mamdani used his knowledge from QCCA to set up the initial charitable trust; Al-Mizan during the summer of 2011. Mamdani left QCCA in October, 2011 to work closely with his newly found charity.

2011-2012: Al-Mizan Charitable Trust

Mohammed Sadiq Mamdani, founded Al-Mizan Charitable Trust in October, 2011. This became the UK's first Muslim grant-funder that supports individuals living in poverty, regardless of their faith or cultural background. Every month, the Trust receives more than 40 applications for financial support, of which only half of eligible applications can be supported with a grant or interest-free loan of up to £500. Although the Trust prioritises applications which provide long-term benefit, rising poverty and unemployment has forced the charity to consider funding more and more applications for basic household and subsistence costs.

2013-Present: Sufra

Sufra was in talks by Mamdani back in 2011, however it wasn't pushed into establishment until late 2012, until eventually it was officially founded in April, 2013. Sufra is an Arabic term meaning "Come to the table". The aim of the charity was to provide local people with food and even basic necessities and toiletries. Sufra was marketed as a Community Food Bank & Kitchen, which aims to support disadvantaged families suffering food poverty in the local area. Sufra quickly became noted for being the second Muslim run charities, after Al-Mizan, that supports all backgrounds and ethnicities in the UK. Sufra began to run Food Academies in 2014, also becoming a local community centre aiming to bring the community together by running food academies and teaching people to cook. The main aim was to train young people between the ages of 16–25 years in basic cookery skills. Over 5 weeks and 10 intensive sessions it hopes to teach people to cook 10 home-cooked meals, understand nutrition and how to maintain a healthy diet. In addition to this, they run a master-chef competition and learn to manage weekly budgets with an accredited qualification, which can be used to apply for an apprenticeship or employment in the catering industry. Mamdani has stated that Sufra has been his most hardest challenges yet but believes there is still more to achieve from it.

Education

Mamdani's enrolled for Richmond upon Thames College in September 1999, located in South London from where he proceeded to Oxford to study Arabic and Persian with Islamic Studies. He took a year out from his undergraduate studies at Oxford University to pilot the Muslim Youth Helpline service. Mohammed graduated from St. John's College, Oxford in 2009. He studied towards a Master's in Arabic and Islamic Studies from SOAS, University of London a year after.

Awards

His awards include Volunteer of the Year from BT & the Telephone Helplines Association (2003), Whitbread Youth Achievers Award (2004) and CSV Year of the Volunteer Medal for Innovation (2005). His citation for the Whitbread award noted, “Mohammed is an inspirational example of what young volunteers can do in their communities, through determination and commitment. This is a project that is making a real difference to hundreds of lives.” Mamdani was added to The Independents "Good List" of 50 people in 2006, where Paul Vallely was involved in the selection process. In January 2015, Mamdani was one of 67 who had been awarded the Halifax Giving Extra Award. As well as receiving this reward, Sufra was entitled to receive £300 in bonus bond vouchers.

Organisations

• Muslim Youth Helpline
• Ansar Youth Project
• Al-Mizan Charitable Trust
• Sufra

References

• Michael Norton (2006). 365 Ways to Change the World. Retrieved 30 December 2014. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Michael Norton (2007). Everyday Activist:. Retrieved 12 December 2014. {{cite book}}: |periodical= ignored (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Mohammed Mamdani on Twitter
• Mohammed Sadiq Mamdani on LinkedIn