18th  March 2012: Harrow Asian Deaf Club as Runner up for the BDAs Best Deaf Club Award 2012

The British Deaf Association (BDA) is the largest Deaf-led organisation in the UK. They represent the British Sign Language community, which is united by shared experiences, history and, most importantly, by language and the Francis Maginn Grand Banquet was the opportunity for everyone to celebrate the Deaf Culture, Deaf Identity and British Sign Language.

BDA as a member-led organisation, their work is focused on achieving equality for Deaf people through campaigning and community engagement. Working with local Deaf Communities is crucial to the success of BDA campaigns and creates opportunities for Deaf people to develop and engage with each other and the wider community.

In 18 March 2003, the British Government recognised British Sign Language as a language in its own right, a landmark announcement welcomed by many of people.

BDA was searching for the Deaf Club that is meeting the new needs of the Deaf Community sought high and low from all Deaf Clubs in the UKs, to decide the winner of BDA’s Best Deaf Club Award. They also asked that as result of the recent economical climate – how the Deaf Clubs are reacting to Modern life. And also looking for the best Deaf Club as a role model for the future.

David Buxton, Chief Executive of British Deaf Association explained: “We recognised the valuable contribution and commitment that Harrow Asian Deaf Club (HADC) provides to the local Deaf community. HADC provide a wide variety of activities especially most recently the first and only Deaf club to host the London Olympic Celebration 2012 and established good working partnership with Council and other community groups to ensure that HADC develop a strong voice to represent the views of all deaf people. Harrow Asian Deaf Club deserved to be recognised as runner up for BDA’s Best Deaf Club!”

Asif Iqbal MBE, President of Harrow Asian Deaf Club explained: “We were so proud for HADC to be recognised as runner up of the BDA’s Best Deaf Club in UK!  We were really fortunate that in a short period of time since reviving in 2009, HADC’s committee have worked so hard in running and supporting our local Deaf club. Not only it stops there, our success is mostly down to the diverse programme of activities we have including mostly recently London Olympic Celebration 2012 which in turn increased our memberships. I hope that our HADC be seen as a positive model for other Deaf clubs to consider. We also wish to congratulate and express our deepest thanks to our HADC’s committee members, volunteers and supporters for their dedication and their fantastic support!”

• 29th June 2012: Harrow Asian Deaf Club won Barclays Bank/Harrow Observer Let’s Do it Award 2012.

• 3^rd  December 2012: Harrow Asian Deaf Club won Breakthrough’s Independent Living Awards 2012 in the category ‘Accessible Communities’ We have just been informed that Harrow Asian Deaf Club has won Breakthrough’s Independent Living Awards 2012 in the category of ‘Accessible Communities’ for our work, making the local & public services accessible to our communities. The announcement came through on the International Day of Disabled People (3^rd December 2012). To learn more, please see the announcement on the Breakthrough Award website: http://www.breakthrough-uk.co.uk/ResourcesNewsAndEvents/ila_2012/ila_winners/nila2012_winners
  (Please note that the video clip is about 4 mins long and you can find us in the category of Accessible Communities in 2mins 24secs).

• 21^st Sepetmber 2012: Harrow Asian Deaf Club as Runner up for the National Diversity Award 2012
  Harrow Asian Deaf Club was invited to the National Diversity Awards, a prestigious black tie evening event, which was held at the Midland  Hotel, Manchester on Friday 21st September 2012, to celebrate the excellent achievements of the grass-root communities that tackle the issues in today’s society, giving them the recognition for their  dedication and hard work that positive role models, charities and community organisation do on a daily basis. The National Diversity Award was designed to showcase the efforts of those who have demonstrated an outstanding devotion to enhancing equality, diversity and inclusion within today’s society; thus embracing the excellence of  our all citizens irrespective of race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability and culture.
• Brian Dowling, TV Presenter & Big Brother winner, was the host of the  evening. There were celebrities from The Voice, (BBC programme) including Ruth Brown who was one of the favourite to win the first series of The Voice until she was unexpected voted out in the Semi Final; Esco Williams, 2012 MOBO Unsung Award Winner and they both gave fantastic entertainment with their songs. Also among the guests of the evening included some Olympians and Paralympians winners with their medals.Harrow Asian Deaf Club was one of the finalists for the category of Community organisations – Disability and came up as runner up, out of thousands of nominations, so it is a huge achievement. HADC were also delighted to meet Brian Dowling who was inspired on HADC’s work and it was the first time for many people to meet a group of Deaf people.