I grew up in Afghanistan and was interested in community leadership from an early age. At school I was chosen as Head Boy, taking on the responsibilities of collecting school fees, managing timetables, and reading the Quran in front of 1,000 students. The disability with my leg meant I had to use crutches, but I had a good group of friends, family, and community members to support me. I was always a hard worker and moved to Pakistan to study Economics and Finance whilst leading the student union. From there I took a government job working on economic policies at the High Economic Commission for Afghanistan and became Head of the Department of Resolutions. But when the Taliban took over the country in 2021, I had to move to the UK and was offered asylum. 

I heard about Sufra’s campaign for free bus travel for people seeking asylum from a friend who was staying at the same hotel and volunteering for Sufra, and I knew I had to get involved. When I arrived in the UK, I didn’t have the right ID to apply for a Freedom Pass, and a £3.50 return bus journey was so expensive with my weekly allowance of £9. 

My first experience of the campaign was the rally outside City Hall where over one hundred community leaders met with Seb Dance, Deputy Mayor of London for Transport. Since then, I’ve helped shape our campaign strategy, given my testimony with four GLA members, starred in our campaign video, and spoken in front of more than 200 community leaders outside City Hall to celebrate our success. 

One of my proudest moments was when we met with the conservative GLA member, Andrew Boff, who said that all somebody needs to do to be convinced of this campaign is spend 5 minutes talking to Sadat. And it was fantastic to attend the GLA motion for our campaign with our supportive team, which gave me a lot of positive energy when we won the vote 15-1. 

I’ve been able to utilise the skills I developed in Afghanistan, of public speaking, community involvement, and engagement with high profile government officials. But I’ve also learnt about relational power and developed my communication, listening and negotiation skills through multi-day training with Sufra and Citizens UK. My confidence has grown, especially with speaking in English which is my fifth language. 

It’s been great to get our first wins of the campaign, with greater accessibility for existing schemes and the ARC card becoming an accepted form of ID. And we’re hoping that Deputy Mayor Seb Dance and TFL can provide funding for discounted bus travel tickets. 

I’m planning to attend the six-day residential training next year which will empower me to use my new skills for our campaign. During the summer I helped chair informative listening circles with Sufra to hear about the pressures affecting our community and we listened to 50 people. 

As a human being, we have a responsibility to do our part and it’s satisfying to think, OK, I did my part. Being a Community Leader Volunteer with Sufra gives me hope for the future.