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West Midlands Youth Interfaith Hub is a group of young people working together to support our local communities. What we do is all inspired by our diverse faiths, showing the power of what we can do by working together.
We are excited about what we can offer collectively to make this world a better place.
Shuranjeet Singh is the founder and director of Tarakī, which works with Punjabi communities to reshape approaches to mental health. Shuranjeet started Tarakī after his experiences of mental health challenges whilst at university. Alongside this, Shuranjeet is also a PhD student at Oxford University and a consultant with the Wellcome Trust.
Hana Begum is a People & Performance manager working in the public sector. She holds a Law degree from the University of Birmingham. She joined the WM Youth Interfaith Hub because she’s passionate about creating social change and increasing dialogue between people of different backgrounds. She’s a former ParliaMentor, who participated in the programme in 2015. Her team hosted a week of events, with the aim of tackling food poverty in their local community.
Harriet Foster has recently graduated from her MA in International Political Economy. Her interests are in Politics and Policy. She has been involved in interfaith work in Birmingham since 2015. She is excited by the opportunity to work with West Midlands Youth Interfaith Hub to engage with social justice projects within the West Midlands.
Talha Ikhlaq is a British-Pakistani Muslim from the Black Country, who is currently studying a Masters in International Law, Philosophy and Politics at the University of Birmingham. Talha is a former ParliaMentor (2020/21) and currently sits on the West Midlands Young Combined Authority Board and is passionate about creating social change. Being a Muslim is deeply rooted in his desire to be an activist and to help people in society and he believes that the West Midlands Youth Interfaith Hub has an essential role to play in building bridges between faith communities and tackling injustice.
Jaspreet Singh is an International Student from the land of Panjab currently pursuing PhD regarding the religious hostility experienced by Sikh in the workplace in the UK. He was the former President of the Birmingham City University Students Union and was awarded the Lord Mayor’s Award for his services towards the city of Birmingham. He was chosen as Birmingham 30 under 30. He is very passionate about interfaith dialogue and believes that it is important to have difficult conversations which may be out of our comfort zones to establish a better society.
Mohammed Junaid Akhtar is a Muslim faith leader who has a passion for serving his community. He does this mainly through the Sufi Abdullah Foundation which has been serving the local faith needs since 1962.
His work also includes a specific focus on engaging the youth through various statutory organisations, council representatives and community leaders. He has a degree in Business and Management from Aston University and is currently a Faith Project Co-ordinator at Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership.
He is also part of the West Midlands Faith Alliance group which focuses on working towards reducing youth violence. His involvement in The Faith and Belief Forum came from his determination to be a voice for the Muslim community. He is driven to create a region which provides better opportunities for underrepresented communities and particularly the youth.