OBV’s brilliant volunteers

It’s Usman’s last day today. Every Tuesday and Thursday for the past six months Usman Butt has travelled an hour each way to come and volunteer for OBV. He started by just tidying the office after our office down-size, and answering the phone to take messages. During his interview he’d indicated that he would like to try his hand at writing. Six months later Usman is a confident political writer. His articles regularly reach the 10,000 readership mark and the numerous Facebook likes are an indication that his readers like what they read.

Usman is not the only volunteer at OBV, Ashley Williams came at similar time. One of her first days at OBV was a round table discussion about Black British politics organsised by The Voice and host at Southwark Council. Ashlea was there to listen, but I encouraged her to join in. So impressive was her contribution that she found herself being quoted in the Voice the following week. To date not only has she written articles, but travelled the country helping organise our leadership projects in various cities.

Nadine Alexander joined us recently. She humbly proclaimed, 

I’ll do whatever the organisation needs me to do"

And true to her word from filing, to research, recording interviews, to writing her own political poems, Nadine has done it all.

Special people such as Usman, Nadine and Ashlea, not only give to Operation Black Vote, BME communities, but also to wider society. They are here because they care, and above all they want to make a difference.

Usman goes on to pastures new with great success waiting for him around the corner. We wish him well, and we want to say  thank you to all three for helping confront the many challenges our communities face, and for being a pleasure to work with.

Simon Woolley