Bolton Homeless Aid UK gives back to Bolton community

Homeless Aid UK volunteers are out regularly providing those without a home and those struggling during the current cost of living with hot meals, much of which has been donated by Bolton takeaways and restaurants.

Recently, charity Human Appeal teamed up with Hellmann's to create 'Iftar for all' boxes of food for struggling families in Ramadan, regardless of faith.

The initiative is available in Bolton from Homeless Aid UK, where Billa and the team can offer the boxes.

Billa Ahmed of Homeless Aid UK said: "Another fantastic initiative is the Iftar boxes from Human Appeal and Hellmanns.

"Huge companies are starting to realise how difficult things can be for some families in Ramadan and we fast to think about people with nothing."

Already, Homeless Aid UK has been inundated with calls regarding the 'Iftar For All' project that started on April 3.

Billa has been volunteering with the charity since its inception around 2010.

Billa, who lives in Bolton said that while religious occassions like Ramadan were busy with more people wanting to help out, the charity wanted to highlight how important the work they do is to the people they help - all year round.

He explained: “Homelessness and helping the poor is not just for Ramadan or Christmas, we should be doing this all year round, but we get more reward during this blessed month.

“It’s multiplied so many times so what I try to do even if I am not needed at the food bank, is to try and do one thing every day for charity, whether it’s donating or helping someone.”

During Ramadan Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from sunrise to sunset, they are also encouraged to do acts of charity, as it is commonly referred to as the ‘month of giving.’

Muslims believe any charitable act is multiplied in reward during this month, showing how highly regarded it is to help the less fortunate.

Bolton Wanderers FC will host an Iftar - breaking of the fast - community event for the first time, Billa praised the football club for getting involved.

He said: “It’s a brilliant project, Blackburn Rovers did it last year and this year we have big clubs doing it too.

“It’s about experiencing what Ramadan is and I take my hat off to the organisers, to the chairman of the Wanderers and I hope some of the players are there and experience it.”

Billa said: “I have been doing this for over a decade about 2010 we started helping the homeless.

“Previously I was working internationally, helping refugees, but here in Bolton I started to see people that I’ve grown up with end up on the street and I knew I had to do something.

“Paddy McGuinness and I see people we knew on the streets.

“It was just a small team of us in Manchester at first but from 2010 we started to see the numbers growing and now we have reached hundreds.”

Homeless Aid volunteer, Steven Wiggans has been volunteering for six years with his son and step-daughter and reiterated that volunteering was something needed for the rest of the year as well as holiday periods.

He said: "I've always had a place in my heart for homeless people and always thought about how I could give back.

"I thought it would be Christmas time I would volunteer but found out that there's loads of volunteers over Christmas, but not enough the rest of the year, so that's how it started."

Steven, who owns the Anarchy Martial Arts in Bolton, encouraged people to not judge those homeless as it happen to anyone and explained how hard it was to see people struggling.

He said: "I think people are misguided and always judge on first impressions.

"I have friends and family that don't understand either, they just think they're drug addicts and that's why they're on the streets, but that's not the case.

"Nobody knows their back stories, I have spoken to people with the most horrific childhoods, who were born drug addicts and know no different.

"I want people to know a bit more about that, because they don't understand it and think they're just bad eggs, I don't agree with that at all."