Hi there.
My name is Lydia. I run a Karate club in the West Midlands.

My club is all about working with the community to offer a safe place for children, teenagers and adults to come together and make a change by doing something positive.

In our area there's a lot of knife crime and gangs of youngsters causing trouble. This is on the rise since all the local community centres were closed down. My goal is to give these youngsters a low cost activity that will give them a goal and awaken their ambitions to focus on achieving their best, rather than getting into the wrong crowds and causing trouble.

My students learn, discipline, respect and concentration, they keep active and fit but above all they have fun!

We have been running classes for the past 7 years in school/church halls and are in the process of opening a proper Dojo as our classes are growing.

I keep the cost of classes to a minimum as I believe in the benefits that Karate can give to any individual and encourage everyone to train regardless of their income. We are a very family friendly orientated club and have many parents training with their children too!

I'm not looking to make money from my club, I simply want to cover my costs of the rent etc and I'm happy. In fact last year I only made £600 profit for the entire year! I have my own job to provide me with an income so this is my passion and I do it because I love it and I love to help people achieve more than they thought possible.

After falling for a government grant scam I invested £2550 in the belief that we had a grant to help us get started. I actually found out that I never had a grant at all and lost the money in the process which was my only savings. We are looking to raise £5000 to help us kick start the club and get the premises equipped for everyone in the area to enjoy. We'll be doing some fund raising within our club to try and raise funds too. Any donations would be extremely appreciated to help us open this facility. Thank you