HNCO: 'A helping hand at home and abroad'

And, with a mission statement that simply says: ‘help where it’s needed most’ the HNCO team have been spending time getting to know charities and causes around the North West to see where they can lend a hand.

To this end, team members and volunteers recently spent a day visiting local hospices, hospitals, and residential homes across Burnley and beyond; to meet staff members and service users, and give out specially-designed activity packs to be enjoyed by patients and visitors.

Spending a sunny Friday travelling across the region, the team made its first stop at Pendleside Hospice, the Colne Road-based charity, which welcomes adult inpatients and outpatients through referrals. 

The services provided by the carers at Pendleside include rehabilitation, dementia support, day services, family support, bereavement counselling, complementary therapies and home visits to name a few. Next stop was The Grove Care Home, Owen Street, which provides nursing care and support to the elderly and young disabled people. 

Finally, a visit to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH) rounded off the day for volunteers Gulshan, Megan, Tasha, Maryam and Saima.

As a charity founded in Nelson, but now with a global outreach, the HNCO team were keen to visit these places and meet both the people who worked there and the patients who use the facilities. 

As with many hospices, hospitals and homes, the care provided by the teams at Pendleside, The Grove and RMCH spans much further than the patients themselves, with friends and family of the service users often spending almost as much time at these locations as their loved one receiving treatment or therapy.

HNCO, therefore, took along a bundle of activity packs and boxes of crayons that can be used either by young patients on a ward and or in family rooms by children visiting patients; but also by older patients – especially men and women with dementia or similar conditions – who can pass the time with colouring, simple puzzles and word searches.

HNCO’s Gulshan Rehman commented: “When we first designed the activity packs we had intended them to be for a younger age group, but quickly realised that the content is suitable for a much wider audience. 

“For patients with dementia for example, puzzles can act as a concentration exercise but also offer some light relief and act as a distraction for what can be a very lonely and frustrating time.

“As well as visiting the hospice to present the activity pack, we wanted to meet the Pendleside team and introduce ourselves, and find out how we could help with future events and activities. 

“HNCO has a global outreach but whether we are fundraising for Pendle or Pakistan, community spirit and a common goal of ‘help where it’s needed most’ is right at the heart of everything we do. 

"We encourage local charity and causes to get in touch with us if they think they can help HNCO or if they think we can help them. 

"Teamwork and collaboration is the backbone of every community at home or abroad, this is the foundation of all our fundraising and charitable endeavours at HNCO.”

This May, throughout Ramadan, HNCO dedicated donations from Zakat, Zakat al-Fitr, Fidya, Kaffrah, Iftar dates, regular contributions and more to its ‘Feed a Village’ campaign. 

"For 30 consecutive days, HNCO volunteers in Pakistan and India provided food parcels of meat, rice and flour to 30 different villages in some of those countries’ most remote and poverty-stricken areas. 

During this time HNCO also joined a fellow organisation Organic Soul on one of its nightly Manchester sessions during its Annual 30-day Ramadan Homeless Feed. 

After one night of meeting the city’s homeless, hungry and vulnerable men and women, as well as offering to attend the Manchester feeds on a fortnightly-basis, HNCO pledged to carry out its own weekly homeless feed in Burnley, which takes place every Wednesday night at the Thompson Centre car park; handing out hot food, snack packs and drinks. Recently a barber also joined the team to offer free haircuts to service users collecting their meal and refreshments.

Now, with Eid al-Adha on the horizon, HNCO is welcoming donations for full or part Qurbani through its website, for sacrificial ceremonies across the globe, to ensure that even those with nothing can enjoy a fulfilling and protein-rich mean at Eid al-Adha, while recognising that someone in the world is thinking of them, and sending them hope and help from wherever they may be.

To find out more about HNCO, or to make a donation, please visit hajjahnazihacharity.co.uk, emailing info@hajjahnazihacharity.co.uk or calling 0800 009 8088