New Year Honours: Nuneaton volunteer and teacher appointed MBE

Abeda Suleman Vorajee said she was most proud of working as a school governor to help future generations

A woman who has spent decades working to improve community understanding said she "had palpitations" after finding out she had been appointed an MBE.

Abeda Suleman Vorajee came to England from Pakistan when she was 16.

She became a school governor in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in her 20s and went on to promote links between different communities in the area.

"I was not expecting it, it came out of the blue," Mrs Vorajee said of the honour.

"I just wanted to give something back to community, to better the community and especially empower young ladies," she added.

Alongside her full-time job as a language teacher, Mrs Vorajee chaired the Local Ethnic Minority Advisory Council for many years, served as a governor for two schools and became a trustee of Warwickshire Race Equality Partnership.

In 1991, she set up and chaired the Nuneaton Muslim Women's Group with more than 100 members to help and support women from all backgrounds.

'Moral support'

"My philosophy became 'if I can do it, so can you'," she said.

When new communities began in Nuneaton, particularly the Nepalese Gurkhas and more recently the Syrian refugees, Mrs Vorajee said she went around to talk to them and to give language lessons.

"I went knocking to say I was a neighbour and a volunteer and offered to help, just to give them that moral support," she said.

Having stopped being a full-time teacher seven years ago, the 65-year-old said she had no plans to slow down her volunteer work "as long as I can carry on" and helps at a Covid vaccination centre.

Her proudest achievement has been her work as a school governor as "it is something [to] which I am giving something for future generations".

Other honours recipients from Coventry and Warwickshire include:

• Anna March Trye, 77, from Leamington Spa, a patron of the Warwickshire Young Carers and a former High Sheriff. She is appointed an MBE for services to young people

• Janice Mathias, 76, from Coventry, who has been awarded a British Empire Medal for voluntary service to the police's custody visitor scheme

• Alpesh Chauhan, from Coventry, music director of Birmingham Opera Company, is appointed an OBE for services to the arts

• Jagtar Singh Gill, of Kenilworth, is appointed an OBE for services to the British Sikh and interfaith communities

• Jo-Anne Wilson, of Southam, manager of Galanos House Care Home, Royal British Legion, is appointed an MBE for services to veterans

• Siraj Ali, of Coventry, is awarded a BEM for services to the community in Coventry

• Donald Maynard Brown, of Coventry, a technology volunteer, receives a BEM for voluntary service to blind and visually-impaired people

• Gita Natarajan, from Rugby, is awarded a BEM for services to the community in the town

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