Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi

Dr Nooralhaq Nasimi MBE has devoted the past 25 years of his life to setting up, building and growing a highly successful charity - the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA) – and still works tirelessly to help Afghan, Ukrainian and all refugees to Britain to initially overcome the devastation of being forced to leave their homeland and the crisis of arriving empty-handed in a strange country, and then to acquire the information, skills and support to successfully integrate into a brand new community and culture.

ACAA is built upon his own experiences of fleeing the Taliban in 1999 with his family, taking untold risks (including the possibility of being frozen to death in a refrigerated lorry) to seek a better life for those he loved. The challenges he faced in those early years after arriving in London provided the motivation/blueprint for launching ACAA and along with the lived experiences of 1000s more refugees over the years and Dr Nasimi’s great determination, drive and charisma, the charity has gone from strength to strength. In the past year ACAA has expanded its footprint nationally and is now the largest Afghan refugee charity in the UK and a major national refugee charity.