community
Local Heroes...
Zora Hosen
Zaynab and Zora
Zaynab Bheekhun nominated her 12-year-old daughter, Zora, for the charitable work she has done in her local community and for launching The Little Kindness Programme and Foundation. Zaynab said: “Zora’s selfless approach towards others is amazing. Zora was bullied for three years – physically and mentally; despite this, she used her passion for art and reading to help motivate others. When Zora won a Jack Petchey Achievement Award, which recognises outstanding young people aged 11-25 across London, it was amazing - she amazes me every day.”
Zora, can you tell us more about The Little Kindness Programme – who it’s aimed at and what it entails? I created the programme to allow young people who have been through a tough time to develop confidence and build their self-esteem. It’s important that everyone’s voice is heard and the programme gives them the opportunity to express themselves in what they want to do – now and in the future.
What inspired you to create The Little Kindness Programme and what do you hope it will achieve? After three years of being severely bullied, my mum gave me the opportunity to create and make things which really helped me focus on a purpose. I thought it would be nice to extend this to others in my school who had been through hardship. I developed the Little Kindness Foundation in January 2019, which from this, I launched the Little Kindness Programme in September 2021 – a charity for communities, where I donate books to school libraries. The Little Kindness Programme focusses on children's mental health and the use of art as a healing tool, which has greatly helped me.
books burned in the summer holidays; someone broke in and destroyed them. I bought lots of replacement books and sent them to the school and then the publishers of the books that were destroyed also opted in to help donate some books which was really nice.
What do you aspire to do when you grow up? I want to be an architect and design buildings. I want to create sustainable buildings that don’t contribute to destroying the planet.
How can people find out more about the Little Kindness Foundation – and will you be rolling this out to all children in the borough in the future do you think? People can find me on social media. I’m on Twitter @TLittleKindness and on Instagram @littlekindnessofficial. I am trying to get hold of different community leaders to be part of the judging panel for the Little Kindness Programme and hopefully roll it out across different boroughs.
A special ‘Thank You’ to Time For Flowers for sponsoring the bouquets for our Local Heroes.
We hear that you’re an artist, a blogger, a climate activist and a poet to name just a few things. How do you find time to fit everything in – and who or what inspires you? I get my school work done as soon as I can so I have time to do the things I love doing – blogging, writing poetry and creating things. My mum inspires me the most – she inspired me to create things and I found a new passion.
Your mum tells us that you’re also a philanthropist. Can you tell us more about this – and from a community or local perspective, who you’ve helped? With the money that I get from doing my chores I buy books and then donate them to school libraries that need help. There was this one school who had thousands of their
10 Life in... Orpington November 2021
Zora with little sis Sarah and Heather from Time For Flowers
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Do you want to nominate a local hero? Email hello@lifeinmagazines.co.uk
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