Noushin Raja had just got onto her dream graduate scheme when her 17 year-old brother was robbed and killed by drunk youths, causing her world to crash around her.
She confessed: “I was the happiest person in the world, but after that I lost all interest in the world and my career.”
Feeling lost, she turned to her faith for support. Islam teaches that when someone dies you can honour them and heal yourself with ongoing charity, or, ‘Sadaqah Jariyah’.
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Noushin started the Moonlight Trust with this philosophy, naming the charity after her brother Amaar, nicknamed ‘Moon’.
Noushin said: “For the first two years it was very small. I went to Leeds every weekend to feed the homeless in memory of my brother."
Ten years on, the charity has supported more 700,000 people across the world and has over 200 volunteers. Noushin is proud of how far the organisation has come. She said: “Something beautiful has grown out of an ugly situation. Like a rose in a desert. That’s how I see him.
“He loved white and I have a picture of him with white rose. A rose has grown out of this tragedy, so many amazing people have contributed. It has attracted beauty around the world.”
Over the years, Noushin has worked with people in need in Afghanistan, Serbia, Greece, France and more. One of the first projects she worked on was helping refugees in Lesbos, Greece.
The trip made a huge impact on her. She told YorkshireLive : “It shook and horrified me even more than I could tell you. I had to get counselling when I was back.
“We took one mother out of a boat and she couldn’t even recognise her own children; they were going blue and grey.”
Since then, much of her work has been with refugees, including those fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Noushin added: “I have worked with refugees for ten years. These are people who have been robbed of their identity, their families, their homes. I see them not for their colour but for what’s happened to them.
“But people treat refugees differently when they are closer to home. I would see the Ukrainian mother who's fleeing war or whose child died because of war, it is exactly the same pain that an Afghan, or Iraqi mother will feel. I think this is an opportunity for Europeans to learn and grow, that now it is happening close to home.”
Noushin was also recently awarded British Muslim Woman of the Year, an honour which earnt her recognition with Leeds Mayor, Asghar Khan.
The award is so important amongst continuing negative stereotyping of Muslim people, said the CEO: “This job is not easy being a woman of colour and being in a leadership position, and then being a visible Muslim woman.
“I'm glad that we get this acknowledgement, because representation is important.”
Her faith is still the driving force behind her work. She added: “Everyone says it must be so hard and asks me how I do it but I am very grateful. My faith has grown stronger. I wanted to change the world, to build on values of love and compassion.”
The organisation’s current projects include support groups for Ukrainian refugees, employability groups for Muslim women and food banks.
To support the Moonlight Trust or learn more click here.
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