4th Anniversary of Grenfell Tower and the return of Br. Hassan Awad

On Friday 11th June 2021 Al-Manaar staff and volunteers organised a “welcome back” lunch in honour of Br. Hassan Awad, who formally returned to work this month after 4 years absence.

Hassan was a resident of Grenfell Tower, where his wife Ms Rania Ibrahim and their two beautiful daughters died on that tragic night of 14 June 2017. Since then Hassan has dedicated his time between grieving for his deep loss, building a Mosque and a school for orphans in his native country Sudan in memory of his wife and daughters, and seeking answers and justice for all the victims of the tragic GrenfellTower fire.

On the night of the fire Hassan was in Egypt visiting his severely sick elder brother. He had to cut short his visit and return to London on Wednesday 14th June 2017 only to find the Grenfell Tower where he lived with his family covered with fire and smoke.

Hassan was an employee of Al-Manaar for 13 years prior to the tragedy. He met his wife Rania at the Al-Manaar Centre. They considered the centre their second family home and the staff and volunteers there as their family members. To her last day Rania maintained the tradition of baking traditional cakes “basboosa” every Friday for worshippers and visitors at Al-Manaar throughout the year and every other evening during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The staff, Imams and volunteers were very pleased with Hassan’s charitable accomplishments in memory of his family and for his return to work where he’s highly appreciated as a dedicated and hard working member of Al-Manaar staff.