Ashton girl, 11, raises almost £3,000 for people of Yemen

An 11-year-old from Ashton raised almost £3,000 for the people of Yemen to have access to a meal and new clothes during Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.

Inaayah Rashig first started fundraising at just eight years old, initially raising money for Madrasah Falah-e-Darain, an Ashton school providing Islamic education.

"In my religion, we're supposed to give charity to the poor and needy," she said.

"Growing up, my mum used to collect donations and my brother used to do fundraisers for our mosque so I was very inspired by them."

Inaayah also raised vital funds to build an orphanage in Gambia, which she still receives regular updates on, as well as contributing money to Gaza medical aid, the Pakistan floods and Turkey/Syria earthquakes.

The St James' Primary School student will soon be working with Good Deed charity to raise donations to help renovate a Yemen building into a bakery, providing locals with fresh bread for free everyday.

Resin bookmarks, keyrings and acrylic crafts are handmade by Inaayah before being sold to raise the money, which is then transferred over the charities in other countries who buy the supplies & distribute them.

Teaching Assistant, Mrs Lowe, said: "Inaayah encapsulates what we would like our St James' children to be. She's always the first to put her hand up when we're raising money for anything - she's an inspiration and we're all really proud of her."

She said that Inaayah had also raised money at a recent school fair for new lockers and books for the library. More info about Inaayah's arts and crafts can be found on the Instagram page ran by her mum @art_in_ayah.