How QED Foundation's Yorkshire Asian Young Achievers Awards celebrates inspirational characters around the region

Ali set up Bradford-based QED to provide support and training to ethnic minority communities and since its creation in 1990 the organisation has raised more than £20m which it has invested in disadvantaged communities across the UK, helping more than 38,000 people in the process. And the YAYAs tap into this desire to improve people’s life chances.

With York St John University as the main sponsor, the inaugural awards were due to launch in April 2020 only for COVID to intervene, forcing it to be held later as an online event. Despite this setback the awards proved a huge success and what had intended to be a one off has become an annual event, with previous guest speakers including the former Pakistani high commissioner to the UK, Professor Akbar Ahmed, and Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire.

“When we did our first event I was pleasantly surprised to see so much talent there is among young people in our communities. It gives me hope that what we had set up 30 years ago is making a difference to the lives of young people,” says Ali.

The awards cover 10 categories – ranging from sport and the arts to education and business – with winners in each as well as an overall winner. Young people can nominate themselves, or others, and can be nominated themselves and since their inception, around 100 people have either won an award, or been shortlisted for one.

The YAYAs are also Yorkshire-wide. “Because we’re based in Bradford people sometimes think this is just for people there, but we’ve had people from all over Yorkshire – places like Batley, Hull, Sheffield and York,” says Ali.

The winners have come from a wide variety of backgrounds including Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan, and their stories are inspirational. “There are amazing examples of people who have overcome obstacles to become really successful,” says Ali. “A short video of each shortlisted young person is shown at the event and I’ve seen people in the audience with tears in their eyes when they hear their stories and how they’ve overcome hardships in their life.”

Mohammed Ali Hussain, who won the first overall prize in 2020, was shunted between care homes and foster placements for much of his life and was bullied at school, but he went on to study astrophysics at Hull University and become chair of Bradford Children in Care Council.

Neil Bharat Patel’s story is no less inspiring. Neil, who has cerebral palsy, won the title of overall Yorkshire Asian Young Achiever 2022. He was nominated in the ‘overcoming life obstacles’ category by one of his university lecturers.

The British Indian from Leeds is a wheelchair user and despite the challenges brought on by his condition earned a first class honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Bradford and now works as a software developer. He described last year’s YAYAs in November as “like the film awards you see on TV”, and said winning the award had boosted his self-confidence.

At last year’s YAYAs, the actor, writer and musician Riz Ahmed, who won an Oscar in 2022 for Best Live Action Short Film for The Long Goodbye, alongside director Aneil Karia, sent a video message to all the winners and those highly commended.

He said backgrounds and culture still play a big part in a person’s chances of success. “Young people of South Asian heritage – and especially those of Pakistani origin – still suffer disproportionally from low educational achievement, poor home backgrounds, fewer opportunities and prejudice.”

Which is why he’s full of praise for these awards. “The YAYAs is a brilliant way to help address that imbalance – by highlighting the achievements of those who succeed despite the odds being stacked against them; by holding up shining examples of achievement by young South Asians that illustrate just what can be achieved.” Ahmed praised the short-listed candidates saying they were all inspirational role models. “I have been lucky enough to enjoy some success in my chosen career in film but I am truly humbled by what these awards winners have done.”

For Ali, the awards, which return once again in November, are also a way of broadening people’s horizons. “It’s a way of getting a message to Asian communities and saying to parents to not just encourage their children to study medicine, law and accountancy. There are many other brilliant and rewarding careers and areas of life where young people can be successful. And if you don’t believe us then listen to these examples of young people in sport, media, education and the arts who have done well for themselves,” he says.

“Young Asian people often live in inner city communities and they don’t necessarily come across these people in their day-to-day lives. So it’s really important for them to meet successful people from similar backgrounds because when they do it makes them think, ‘if they can do it then so can I.’”

For more information about the YAYAs visit Yorkshire Asian Young Achiever Awards 2023. The deadline for nominations for this year’s awards is 9am on Monday, June 19, 2023. This year’s event will be held on November 17 at the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford.