Nahimul Islam

London FA Council Member Wins British Citizen Award

Congratulations to our council member, Nahimul Islam.

Nahimul Islam from Tower Hamlets, London is to be recognised with a British Citizen Award Medal of Honour in recognition of their extraordinary endeavours. The British Citizen Award, in partnership with One Stop, is now in its fifth year and recognises exceptional individuals who positively impact their communities throughout the country. 

Although the physical Medal Presentation Ceremony has been temporarily postponed due to social distancing guidelines, 25 extraordinary people are being recognised for their positive impact on society, their selfless giving, and their commitment to community. The provisional revised date for the official medal presentation is 22nd October 2020.

London FA Council Member Nahimul is being honoured for their services to the volunteering and charitable giving with a BCAv.  

7 years ago, at the age of 18, Nahimul launched his own football club to try and bring the community, particularly young people together.  At the time being a student and working part time, he dedicated every spare hour to help young people become footballers and leaders.  At the beginning with no one to believe in him and no one to advise him, Nahimul kept his motivation and determination.  Due to many of the club members coming from very low-income families, the club started declining into debt, with Nahimul using his own money, savings and donations from family and friends to keep the club going.  Nahimul started knocking on the doors of local shops and businesses to keep the club going and now 7 years later, Nahimul manages 50 volunteers and has 150 members in the football club. 

Nahimul is the Director of Wapping Youth FC and all of his work is entirely voluntary.  He has used his own funds at times to deliver specific unique projects, raising awareness of dementia and created workshops locally on islamophobia, extremism and hate crime and every school holidays works on a hunger programme to ensure those that would normally receive school meals, have food at home during the holidays.

In 2018 he was chosen by the National Football Association to carry out the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.  This was also the year he received the National FA award for Young Volunteer of the Year.  Nahimul has grown up himself in an overcrowding household and did not have an easy start with no one to believe in him, in an area of deprivation where crime rates were high, he defied the odds and wants to continue to make a difference to his community of Tower Hamlets.

While some aspects of the Medal Presentation may have to change, the Medalists will all have a memorable day that they will never forget, which is fitting recognition for their amazing contribution to society. The event will be hosted by TV’s Tim Vincent, with BCA Patron’s Lord Dholakia and Dame Mary Perkins, co-founder of Specsavers also in attendance. Medals will be presented by senior figures from the sponsor community which includes Experian, Places for People, Objective HR, alongside Specsavers and One Stop.  

The British Citizen Award was established in 2015, to recognise exceptional individuals who work tirelessly and selflessly making a positive impact on society. The BCA recognises true community heroes who would otherwise likely be overlooked. Dubbed the People’s Honours, many recipients have subsequently been selected to receive a Queen’s Honour after their endeavours have been recognised with a BCA.

Each Medal of Honour bears the words ‘For the Good of the Country’ and are presented to only a small number of exceptional individuals twice yearly. The British Citizen Award is widely viewed as the nation’s way of recognising extraordinary, everyday people for exceptional endeavor and are truly representative of today’s multicultural Britain.

Everybody at London FA would like to congratulate Nahimul on this remarkable accolade.