“21 For 21” Awards launched jointly by the Church Times, British Muslim TV, and Jewish News, together with Coexist House, chose 21 young leaders — 7 Jews, 7 Christians & 7 Muslims – to receive awards at Lambeth Palace, for their inspirational and exceptionally outstanding inter faith work.
In his opening comments, the Award Presenter Alastair Stewart OBE of ITV News said, “Our daily bread contains news of conflicts between different faiths from around the globe. We forget these conflicts are conducted by the minority of people for the benefit of the minority of people. Majorities across all backgrounds just want to get on with their lives. Cooperation between faiths therefore is a key prospect of the 21st century.”
From among more than a 100 strong nominations received from across the country, it is a great honour that our colleague Mohammad Ryad Khodabocus, won the 21 for 21 Award for his innovative and hands-on inter faith work in Luton.
Ryad is exceptionally gifted with imagination, creativity and intrapreneurship. Born in the Paradise Island of Mauritius, Ryad has been living and working in Luton (UK) for the past 10 years, with LUTON COUNCIL OF FAITHS, in partnership with GRASSROOTS, a Christian ecumenical programme of community engagement in Luton.
Besides holding a Masters in Psychology and Management, Ryad has become a specialist in the fields of Spirituality, Diversity, Relationships, Personal Development, Psychology and Communication. He is also a
· Sport Coach specializing in Archery
· a consultant and coach in Human Energy Performance Management, licenced with HeartMath Institute
· and the author of his upcoming book ‘Unleash Your Peace Genius’.
He has pioneered many projects in the area of Community Development, Inter-Faith and Inter-Cultural work, with focus on environment and ecology, ethical & fair trade, sports and health, high quality youth leadership programme for 16-25, religious education linking with science and contemporary context.
He delivers well researched training and talks, seminars around diversity and leadership. He brings a wealth of knowledge dealing with human complexity and nature looking through the eyes of science and spirituality and contextual community development work. He is passionate about Emotional Intelligence, NLP, neuroscience, HeartMath and Peace Development.
We congratulate Ryad for this well-deserved recognition and hope he will continue to aspire and inspire for a better world that we are all striving for.
From the GRASSROOTS Staff Team