Adventure-loving Naimah wins top Rotary Club award

An adventure-loving 19-year old from Ashton-under-Lyne has been recognised for her charity fundraising by winning a Rotary Young Citizen Award 2024.

Naimah Kadar has raised thousands of pounds for charity, while supporting her local community, after undertaking a series of impressive challenges.

In September 2022, Naimah joined the Lindley Educational Trust, via the Rank Aspire Programme. This gave her the opportunity to work closely with others in her local area, through the Lindley Youth Club provision, as well as honing her outdoor education skillset at Lindley’s Hollowford Centre.

This experience encouraged Naimah’s love of the great outdoors to flourish, and that resulted in her joining a group of young people trekking Morocco’s Mount Toukbal in August 2023. An incredible but daunting trip for the group, Naimah took a leading role on the climb, helping to keep spirits high – even when most of the group’s luggage didn’t arrive in Morocco!

But Naimah’s adventurous spirit doesn’t stop there. Since finishing her contract with Rank Aspire, Naimah undertook the enormous challenge of scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in January 2024. Through this, Naimah raised an impressive £3,800 for charity – smashing her initial target of £3,500.

For all of this fantastic fundraising and community leadership, Naimah was awarded her Rotary Young Citizen Award at a ceremony in April. She was nominated by the Rotary Club of Buxton. Rotarian Kim Priestley said: “Naimah is clearly a much valued member of her local community, and doing fantastic work to raise money for charity. She has become a role model for other young people in her community, particularly young Muslim women, by demonstrating what they can work towards and achieve.”

Naimah received her award on Saturday, April 20 from two former winners, Bella Field and Katriona Goodsell, at the Rotary Young Citizen Awards ceremony in Alcester, Warwickshire, home of Rotary GB&I.

Naimah was chosen as a 2024 winner alongside eight other young people. Now in its 17^th year, the Rotary Young Citizen Awards was launched in 2007 to celebrate the amazing achievements of young people across Great Britain and Ireland, many of whom have assumed important responsibilities at a very young age. Nominations are put forward by Rotary Clubs.