A VOLUNTEER from the Bromsgrove Community Support group set up to help the elderly and vulnerable during the Coronavirus crisis has won a ‘Make a Difference Superstars’ award from BBC Hereford and Worcester.
Maz Salmou was a television reporter in Syria and moved to Bromsgrove as a refugee in September 2018 through Worcestershire County Council’s Syrian Resettlement Programme.
Since the start of the lockdown he has given hundreds of hours of his own time, collecting shopping and fetching prescriptions on his bike and providing a listening ear to those who needed it during these difficult times.
He said he wanted to give something back to the Bromsgrove community which had made him so welcome since he settled here.
He was nominated for the award by former Birmingham Poet Laureate and community campaigner Spoz and was presented with it at Sanders Park by Nina Das Gupta from BBC H&W live on the Malcolm Boyden Show.
Maz was one of two overall winners of the award and will now have his name on the side of a GWR train which he will be given free travel on.
Yvonne Rendell from Bromsgrove and Redditch Welcomes Refugees said: “We’re overjoyed for Maz.
“He really deserves this award.
“Maz has gone above and beyond, during lockdown, helping vulnerable people who were isolating, to get their much-needed prescriptions.
“His efforts have been relentless, zipping around on his bike, sometimes even seven days a week.
“He’s a worthy winner. And we’re really pleased for him.”
Nina Das Gupta’s interview with Maz can be heard here
