Hannah Chowdhry

On International day of friendship why not speak out for oppressed or bullied people in your communities?  Here I was speaking at Westminster Cathedral highlighting the persecution of Christians in Pakistan. Many of you will never have heard of the International day of Friendship, which is the very reason I write this blog. The special day was devised by UNESCO and ratified by the UN at their General Assembly in 1997, yet since then the day has been celebrated little. The day itself has some very inspirational objectives and I list their 8 areas of action which they promote to nations, organisations and individuals to foster global peace: foster a culture of peace through education promote sustainable economic and social development promote respect for all human rights ensure equality between women and men foster democratic participation advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledg...

As young people in this modern world we are all very well aware of the power of the internet. As a campaigner for groups like the East Ilford Betterment Partnership and the British Paksitani Christian Association I myself have had to use social media to promote our work, and without social media we would fail to reach the global audience who have come to read the material we produce. However, in the same way that the internet and especially social media can be used for good of course those who intend to use it for more evil purposes have the same access as those who choose to use it for good. These sites do not discriminate and their policing of content pushed out by users is poor at best and slow to react meaning that fraud and exploitation is rife. There are many social media that people use and though Facebook is still the most popular especially in 20 - 40 year olds, others like twitter, Instagram, whatsapp and snapchat all have large segments of the market and this list is n...

I felt very privileged when I was presented with a Diana Award on 15th July 2019.  The event was very lavish and was held at the Welsh Assembly (I had to miss the London Ceremony due to being on the Duke of Edinburgh Award Silver Expedition) which I had never visited before. The Welsh Assembly building was extremely modern and their main foyer was all glass which created quite a spectacle.  Before the glass you have a picturesque view of the River Taff which is a popular tourist location with many amenities and after my ceremony I was was able to take a walk around and even had a meal at my favourite restaurant chain Wagamamas. The ceremony was swift and efficient, photos were taken expediently and the event team described what families should do i.e when to stay quiet and when to cheer, prior to the presentations.  The team also kept the biographies succint which actually made the whole event more palatable than others I have been to. My certificate was present...

Hi it's been some time since I wrote a blog but I thought I would share my recent experiences whilst going through my Silver Award Expedition for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. This year it was really difficult as I was suffering from extreme pain throughout and had to resort to using painkillers and masses of antihistimine to cope with my severe hayfever too. So as you can imagine I was lucid one moment and groggy the next. Worse still on the first day of my expedition my sisters had been playing with my walking boots so I had to borrow my mothers, which was one size to small and caused me no end of pain for the first day.  Even though my father dropped my pair of boots at 11:30pm to one of the kind instructors it made little difference for the following two days as I had already formed blisters from the tight boots on the first day.  It was a really woeful start... I was the only girl on a group of 7 and though it seemed intimidating at first I honestly believe I ...

Hundreds of people - most of them children and youth - joined a march to 'Save our Libraries' in Colchester on Saturday (27th April), to thwart Essex County Council proposals to terminate 25of its 74 libraries and to make a further 26 volunteer-operated. Young protestors had fun creating boards at a workshop from 11:30 in the morning at the Colchester Town House before starting their 1 mile march from Colchester Library to Firstsite. While walking chants of  'No ifs, no buts, no Essex Library cuts', could be heard. At the end of the protest a bagpiper and Scottish dancers entertained participants while an African drum group played some rythmical beats.  In between the party atmosphere I was asked to talk about why I had travelled all the way from Chigwell to Colchester to take part in the march.  You can see a video here: Essex County Concil have claimed that usage of libraries has reduced by 40% over the last ten years but have themselves made m...

Wilson Chowdhry with new solar panels on roof. My father recently installed photo-voltaics (solar panels) to our roof, which will produce around 60% of our annual general electricity consumption. This will not only lower our electricity bills but because the installation was fitted before the 31st of March, my father can also benefit from a feed-in-tariff (FiT), which means he will be paid for any daily surplus that is not used for our home. Most importantly the solar panels produce a very green form of energy and today I feel as if our family is really doing something important to preserve the future of our environment. We were lucky as since we moved to Chigwell we are now in the county of Essex. As an incentive to local residents Essex County Council organised a bulk-buy scheme with a local contractor, meaning that due to economies of scale overall the purchase was discounted for all those who took part in the "Solar Together Essex" programme. A spokesper...

Image: Hannah Chowdhry speaking at Redbridge Peace Pole. We urge adults and teenagers in the UK to sign our petition calling for stronger knife-crime reforms  (click here) Support Hannah Chowdhry's teen non-alcoholic bar project by donating (here) . We know projects like this work as we have had success before:  (click here) ,  (here)  and  (here) Over 30 teenagers we polled on their concerns about knife crime and information form that was shared in a letter to the Government by myself.  All of those polled have suggested that teenagers are ignored when it comes to matters about knife-crime pertaining to them. To provide an opportunity for teenagers to have their say, the British Pakistani Christian Association, Ilford High Road Baptist Church, anti-knife UK, East Ilford Betterment Partnership, Al Bayan Welfare Centre and Mosque, Met Police, E-Gangs, 4TY and others have teamed up to hold a knife crime meeting on Saturday 30th Marc...