TWO Blackburn primary schools have raised £3,676 for the Muslim Welfare Institute charity to supply water pumps in Bangladesh.

St James’ Primary School and Brookhouse Primary School raised the money through a sponsored fast and donations from parents, children and staff.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Shagufta Rehman, a family support worker at St James’ Primary School, added: “We arranged one sponsored fast day that Muslim and non Muslim staff and children at the school took part in.

“Staff and parents donations were collected over a week and we did this to build strong community links within the area.

“Last year we raised around £450 which funded just over three water pumps that cost £150 each. This year we have been able to fund over 20 pumps.

“We believe it is a necessity to raise this money to provide water for a mainly rural community in Bangladesh.

“It is a life-saving project. We would like to thank the parents for their donations.”

Brookhouse primary school was also involved in the fundraising project and Katherine Forsyth, special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) said: “We chose to work with St James Primary School because we work with different schools in the area and we wanted to create a link with them.

“We did not expect to raise such a generous amount.

“We wanted to do this because it links in with the schools values of giving to those who may be less fortunate.

“The head teacher of the school, Debbie Withey, was really touched by how exceedingly generous parents were.”

The Muslim Welfare Institute (MWI) is a registered Blackburn charity and Hanif Dudhwala, secretary of MWI, said: “We have collected all the donations so we will be installing these pumps within the coming weeks or months.

“The charity teams up with other charities abroad who install the water pumps and once installed we inspect their work.

“We have installed over 300 pumps over the last few years and it is one of our ongoing projects.

“We are really thankful to both schools for their contributions and we will visit the schools when the pumps have been installed and plant a plant in their name.”

For further information about the work of the Muslim Welfare Institute, please visit the website at mwinstitute.co.uk