Ali Khazaei | Local Hero
Ali Khazaei is one of our Top Local Heroes from our film ‘Depictions of DN’. We asked Ali about his volunteering and how he felt to be voted a local hero.
Ali is the owner of ‘Kian Halal Meat Shop’ on Copley Road. Ali was a butcher in Iran before he moved to Doncaster in 2008 and noticed that Copley Road didn’t have anyone serving halal meat. This was the first of several businesses Ali would open along Copley Road.
As someone who is Muslim himself, Ali knew the importance of being able to easily access halal meat like chicken, beef and lamb. But his butcher shop serves the whole community. He says “A lot of my customers are Muslim people, but I also have customers that are Turkish, Kurdish, Pakistani, Indian, Romanian, Polish and English.”
We asked Ali about his volunteering work over the pandemic, helping to deliver food boxes to families for Ramadan.
“During the first lockdown, Akeela [Mohammed – who nominated Ali for Depictions of DN] asked me: ‘Can you help? Can we use your van to deliver boxes for Ramadan?’ I said yes and I gave free meat to go in the boxes and helped package it all. We gave the boxes to the community – Muslim, non-Muslim, everyone.
In every box, we put inside an onion, potato, rice, meat and oil. They were very heavy boxes of nearly 20kg. We delivered boxes to 50 families. We gave them to everybody who needed them. We’re keeping some boxes empty again for this year.
Even before the boxes, I helped over 20 or 30 families every year for Ramadan. It’s a sacred time and I want to support families in their shopping. I also help refugee people coming to Doncaster because I have the restaurant (which serves halal food) as well as the halal meat shop. We are a community.”
Ali has a strong faith and has proven to be a pillar in his community. Over lockdown, he says lots of people came to tell him about the jobs they had lost because of the pandemic. For those who were struggling, particularly families with children, he gave them free food from his shop and restaurant.
He says: “We believe in God. He gives us power and makes us strong. And we believe in working hard. We must help the people. We believe we have power because we are a community.
As Muslims, we say sadaqah [charity or alms] - we must give people some sadaqah. We believe in giving help face to face. We give Masha’Allah [Thanks to Allah] and then we give to others. We are a community, we are neighbours – we all need to help each other. Why not?”
Our Top Local Heroes have taken part in a film shoot with artist James Lockey as a way to profile their work and celebrate their achievements. Along with a beautiful film score composed by Hayley Youell, the film was featured in this year’s DN Festival of Light.
Watch the Depictions of DN Film by James Lockey here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyzO1E-FF6Y