Community News

A Birmingham dad who switched careers from the army to social care will be taking on the London Marathon for the disability charity Sense, who he credits with giving him the skills to care for his disabled daughter. 

Syed Kazmi, 39, had been an army officer in Pakistan. However after his daughter Syeda, 7, was born with cerebral palsy the family decided to relocate to the United Kingdom, settling in Sutton Coldfield.

This past “Semana Santa” or “Holy Week”, millions across the world celebrated and continued to celebrate important events of their faith.

The objects of adoration are all different, of course, and there is a need to reaffirm our beliefs and how they might differ from other families of thought and belief. Focusing on people’s differences contributes to building and maintaining vibrant and healthy communities provided it does not encourage bigotry or exclusion.

The RSPCA is recruiting hundreds of volunteers to take part in the Big Help Out on May 8 to mark King Charles III’s Coronation celebrations - with one dedicated RSPCA volunteer already very familiar with the new Monarch.

The drive is part of a major volunteering initiative and the RSPCA is asking people to sign up as ‘Wildlife Friends’, a brand new volunteering role and join thousands of others making a difference.

In celebrating the birth of the Khalsa, the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi - one of the most significant holidays in the Sikh calendar – community spirit and forward-thinking will be high on the agenda as spiritual and physical integration remains at the fore, as it always has.

Also known as Baisakhi, due to its close connection with the foundations of Sikhi, Vaisakhi, which is one of 9 festivals India is celebrating this month, forms a significant role in the Sikh yearly calendar.

A Herefordshire father and son team has overcome personal adversity to develop a software platform that can change the way the world’s designers and engineers make products.

Ryland and Michael Johnson leveraged each other’s unique talents in manufacturing and software engineering to create CloudMilling, industry’s first and only cloud-native Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) solution.

Severn Trent is urging customers to ’Bin The Wipe’ as part of a national campaign.

Water UK’s ‘Bin The Wipe’ campaign is calling on people to stop flushing wet wipes to help protect the environment and prevent homes and businesses from being flooded. The campaign launched as Water UK research reveals that over a fifth (22%) of people in the UK admit to flushing wet wipes down the toilet.

The Lorenzo Natali Media Prize, the EU's flagship journalism award, is open for applications. Journalists can apply by submitting eligible stories until midnight of 28 April. The Prize recognises and honours the work of journalists from around the world which shed a light on the most pressing global challenges.

The European Commission calls on journalists reporting on issues relating to inequality, poverty eradication, sustainable development, environment, biodiversity, climate action, digital, jobs and employment, education and skills development, migration, healthcare, peace, democracy and human rights to apply online.

Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children’s Laureate for 2022-2024, will visit Central Library in Wolverhampton next week as part of his nationwide ‘Library Marathon’, championing local libraries inspiring a love of reading in young people. The award-winning performance poet, playwright, and children’s author visit is visiting a library in every local authority in the UK – more than 200 libraries in total – with the aim of encouraging people, young and old, to join their local library.

Ruth Wilson, 79, was at an all-time low in life. She had six amazing grandchildren she loved more than anything in the world.

It was the highlight or her day to spend time with them. But something was stopping her from ever getting to see them.

Ruth was sitting on the couch on an average Sunday waiting for her daughter and grandchildren to visit any minute. Instead, the phone rang. Her daughter said they wouldn’t be able to come today or anytime soon.

An animal lover from Norfolk has recently taken on the Blickling Spring Half Marathon to support her chosen charity, RSPCA Mid Norfolk and North Suffolk Branch.

Jessica Groome, who works as a Planner for a Norwich-based housebuilder, successfully completed the half marathon on Sunday 19th March, raising a total of £1,929 for the charity.

A group of Nepalese security guards who worked at the British embassy in Kabul have been told their threatened removal from the UK has been paused.

The Gurkhas have been in the UK since being rescued from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. Papers had been issued ordering their removal to Nepal and India, with some of the men being detained following a raid at their hotel.

A Construction Director in Nottingham has set off on a trip of more than 837 miles to support his chosen charity, PSP Association (PSPA).

Rob Hutchings (51), who works at Barratt and David Wilson Homes’ divisional office in Nottingham, was recently seen off by his team to kickstart his trip from John O’Groats to Land’s End. He has spent the last couple of years restoring ‘Lenny’, his Classic Land Rover Series 3, to help guide him across the UK and raise funds for PSPA.

Science fiction fans are in for a real treat next week when award-winning British author Alastair Reynolds comes to Birmingham for a special evening hosted by Birmingham Science Fiction Group and Millennium Point.

The writer behind Revelation Space, Revenger, Chasm City and Everson appears on Friday April 14th at 7.45pm - a unique opportunity to hear him discuss his incredible career, which also includes the short stories, Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift, which were adapted as part of Netflix’s animated anthology, Love, Death and Robots.

Passengers travelling between London Euston and Scotland and through the Midlands over the Easter bank holiday are being reminded that the best time to travel is either side of the long weekend.

Between Good Friday (7 April) and Easter Monday (10 April), Euston station will be shut to main line train services for the final phase of upgrades to track and signalling at Watford junction. As this work needs the entire railway to be closed over the four-day long weekend, trains will start and finish at Milton Keynes instead.

The Isles of Scilly is the local authority with the least energy efficient homes in England and Wales, with a median score of 49, reveals analysis of 23 million EPC certificates by Uswitch.com, the comparison service.

Uswitch’s ranking of 331 local authorities revealed that Wales makes up five of the ten of the local authorities with the least efficient homes. All of the areas with the hardest to heat homes have scores of 62 or below.

One million eligible claimant families receiving tax credits, and no other means-tested benefits, will get the first 2023-24 Cost of Living Payment from Tuesday 2 May 2023, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed.

The £301 government payment will be paid automatically into most customers’ bank accounts between Tuesday 2 and Tuesday 9 May 2023 across the United Kingdom. Only eligible families who receive tax credits and no other means-tested benefits will receive the payment from HMRC.