Leader of the Month - October

After convening our panel of experts we are proud to announce...

October's leader of the month is:

Fida Hussain

"Fida has used his mountaineering skills and mountaineering qualifications for delivering Duke of Edinburgh in the Borough of Rochdale for over 10 years with a very high success rate. Rochdale has a high percentage of people from minority ethnic backgrounds. His has engaged a lot of young South Asian people in the D of E programme. He has used these skills to work with the BMC Equity Steering Group. More recently he has worked on the particular subject of why young people from a South Asian background do not engage in walking activities after completing their D of E and why they do not pursue qualifications.

"Fida has set up a workshop which will include presentations from Mountain Training England and the BMC to try and encourage young South Asian people who have the skills, to consider pursuing qualifications. Currently there are 29 people interested. This has only been achieved by Fida’s incredibly hard work and the respect that he commands in the borough of Rochdale. He is able to work with both young people and community leaders and has a very strong insight into the invisible barriers that exist in the community. If successful this will have a significant impact on developing programmes to attract more ethnic minority people in to walk leading and qualifications."

Fida (far right in the picture) holds the Mountain Leader award. He was nominated by Graeme Hill, Disability Sports Development Officer in Rochdale. In addition to our Leader of the Month award, Fida has recently been awarded Rochdale Borough Housing Volunteer of the Year for his contribution to devloping staff, volunteers and members of public. He was also recognised as a community champion for the time he spends listening to some of the most vulnerable people in the community. This is a well deserved award, as we are aware of the number of hours, many away from his family, he spends helping various group on training, funding etc

The award was also for his outstanding contribution for setting up the Duke of Edinburgh Award for young people in Housing, and the training and development of staff and volunteers.

The contribution Fida has made to people in the borough, to train them to support the many people he has come across, has given confidence, leadership and motivation to everyone.

To nominate someone for Leader of the Month, email nicola@mountain-training.org and explain, in 200 words or less, why you think they deserve to win. 'Leaders' can be anyone with a Mountain Training award.

Each month's winner will receive a year's free membership of the Mountain Training Association and a Sherpa technical fleece.