Members from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Elders Association South Region officially launched two charity walks starting with the national Charity Walk for Peace 2019, in association with MK Dons and MK DONS SET, and their Regional Charity Walk being held at Lloyd Park in Croydon on 27th April 2019, at their Pre-Charity Reception Dinner held in New Addington on Friday March 29th to a packed hall of charities and civic dignitaries.

Cllr. Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon Central and Shadow Housing Minister, addressed the evening as the chief guest of honour alongside over 10 charities and representatives from the local communities.

Fundraising through the charity walk is now in its 34th year and the country wide Charity Receptions focus on the aims, objectives and fundraising efforts of the Charity Walk for Peace and the supported charities.

Zaheer Ahmad, Chairman of the Charity Walk for Peace, said:
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart to attending today and thank you for your support and for participating this evening, so we may work together for humanity and for peace. Members from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Elders Association have worked so hard to collect hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity and it’s so encouraging to see.”

Cllr. Sarah Jones, MP for Croydon Central, said:
“It’s such a pleasure to be here. This is one of quite a number of events I’ve been to that have been organised by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. I’ve been amazed how active the community is with their charity work.

Jenny Jones
Acorns 2 Oaks – Community Builder Best Start Services
“I will be joining the charity walk and will do my best to invite as many people as possible, including colleagues and friends. I think its win win win situation, where the walk is all about peace, which is fantastic and its about community cohesion and its raising money for charities.”

Mrs Scott – Mind in Croydon
“Mind works towards better mental health. The work you are doing on our behalf of us in terms of raising funds is key, it is very important for us.”

Mark – Local Conservative Representative Croydon
“We have heard a lot about the Charity Walk and I am a big fan of the organisation and you are doing fantastic work. One of your members is the Vice Chairman of another community group I am part of and that’s where we learn so much about your community.”

Rafi Ahmad, Vice Chairman of the Charity Walk for Peace, said:
“We are having this wonderful reception today to officially launch the walk with MK DONS and MK DONS SET. To date we have supported over 494 charities, and we hope you will use today’s session to become our friends as we can do so much more together with more people involved. I would like to mention here that this year’s National Walk takes place in Milton Keynes, but we have 18 regions and already 10 of those regions have said they are going to hold regional walks this year for charity.”

Dr. Ijaz ur Rahman, National President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Elder’s Association, said:

“I am grateful to the charities who have joined us this evening for the South Region Charity Reception. Without their support we would not be where we are today, raising millions for UK charities. Our spiritual leader, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, has guided us to work with smaller charities even more so. In the last few years we have supported more and more local charities and the significance to that is the smaller charities benefit much more from the donations and the volunteer support. Thus, moving the National Walk across the country helps us to do this.”

This year’s walk is taking place in association with MK DONS SET on Sunday June 30th, 2019 and promises to break last year’s fundraising record of £1 million pounds for UK charities. Charity Walk for Peace has raised more than £5.2 million for charities, supporting 494 UK registered charities with a staggering £501,000 raised for the 2018 Poppy Appeal.

Charities that attended the launch:

• MIND in Croydon
• London Fire Brigade
• Acorns2Oaks
• Off The Record Youth Counselling
• Royal British Legion
• Imagine Independence
• St. Christopher’s
• Samaritans of Croydon & Sutton
• Caysh
• Broadgreen Big Local