Award winning community champion Nishall Garala is possibly one of the most recognisable faces from Harlow following his celebrated #BigUpHarlow initiative, we had a chat with him to find out more!
Q. Tell our readers who is Nishall Garala?
An award-winning community worker, Nishall Garala has been working to improve the lives of people in his town for many years. Beginning as a Youth Councillor for Harlow Youth Council in 2009, Nishall has worked hard to provide opportunities and be the voice of his peers. Nishall is a modern and innovative thinker, dedicated to creating the best environments for people to flourish in. He has had many public appointments representing Harlow and its people. Nishall was the East Regional Winner and National Finalist for ‘Bringing Communities Together’ for vInspired’s 2014 awards. Nishall was awarded Young Volunteer of the Year by Harlow Council in 2011 and won second-place in Essex’s Young Person of the Year 2015. He has also been honoured the British Citizen Award for his services to the community in 2017. He is the founder of #BigUpHarlow, an ongoing drive to improve the public image of Harlow through the use of social media and to champion the achievements of the people that live there.
Q. How did #BigUpHarlow come about?
#BigUpHarlow came about in October 2014, after I attended the One Young World Summit representing the UK. The summit saw over 1000 delegates from over 150 countries. During the summit, I spoke to many people, and everyone spoke highly of their hometowns, and with this thought, I went to the streets of Harlow to see what people thought of our town, but the responses were negative. After investigating this further, I found out the real source of this negativity came from social media, hence to combat this negativity, I launched the social media campaign #BigUpHarlow, to help people realise the greatness of Harlow. The campaign has gone from strength to strength with lots of important people supporting it and encouraging others to join in, which is amazing! Also, more and more people are using the hashtag to promote Harlow’s goodness, without any reminders, which shows that the initiative is changing people’s negative perception of Harlow.
Q. How does supporting the community in Harlow make you feel?
Supporting the community really makes me feel happy, I have always loved the quote by Mahatma Gandhi which said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” After serving the community for many years, I realised this quote is truest of them all, as its really shaped who I am and what I do. I love serving the community as it brings smiles to people’s faces and seeing someone smile, it naturally makes me happy. Hence services to others is where my happiness lies.
Q. You have scooped various accolades including a British Citizen Award – what do these mean to you?
I don’t do community work for the awards or the recognition, but when I do receive accolades, I dedicate them to the community, friends and family, because without them and their support I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. So, the awards I win, mean a lot to me, because it reminds me that I have a major drive of supporters behind me, which makes me want to work harder, and this is my way of saying thank you. Also, when I’m awarded an accolade it does make me really happy, just because someone has gone out of their way to recognise my work, and it reassures me that I’m doing the right thing, which further motivates me to keep working to make a positive difference in society.
Q. What have you got coming up in future?
Well, I don’t know, I’m currently working at Harlow College, hopefully inspiring the next generation to take on community work, but I would love to become Harlow’s MP one day, and take my work up to a national level, I’m just waiting for the right opportunity to come around.
You can connect with Nishall on the below:
Twitter: twitter.com/NishallGarala
Facebook: facebook.com/NishallGarala
Instagram: instagram.com/nishallgarala/
