Article published in 5th August Ilford Recorder newspaper and online at: http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/content/redbridge/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsIlford&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsilford&itemid=WeED05%20Aug%202010%2009%3A10%3A29%3A950
A PEACE monument dedicated to the borough's knife crime victims will finally be installed after a hard-fought funding campaign by activitists.
Organisers hope the memorial, which will cost £11,000, will spread a message of peace and intolerance to knives.
The names of three knife crime victims - Jack Large, 14, Kashif Mahmood, 16, and Charlotte Polius, 15 - will be inscribed on the structure, called Be the Change.
Each of the teens died after being stabbed.
The funding success is the result of donations from relatives, peace campaigners and residents.
It follows two unsuccessful applications for funding from the council's cabinet, as well as two more from area committees in the last two years.
Parvin Mahmood - mother of victim Kashif - donated £2,000 towards the memorial.
It also received a £5,000 donation from the East London Community Foundation as part of a government grant.
Anja Beinroth, acting director of the foundation, said: "The memorial will be extremely beneficial for the local community in raising awareness to reduce knife crime for young people."
Ann Oakes-Odger, chief executive officer of campaign website knifecrimes.org, donated a further £1,000.
More than 100 youths took part in two sponsored walks, and a £550 collection from the Redbridge Carnival also aided the cause.
The money was collected by the East Ilford Business Partnership, which will now put plans into action to install the memorial by the Riches Road subway, Ilford - the site where Kashif was killed in 2005.
Chairman Wilson Chowdhry said: "The walks show what an impact we're having with young people openly challenging knife crime, instilling into them that communities working together can achieve great things."
He added: "We hope to achieve a concept of years of legislative change in respect of reducing knife crime and schisms that we find in younger communities." The monument will be unveiled in September.
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