Welcome back to our series of Step Over Hunger guest blogs.
We’ve invited some of our favourite Step Over Hunger participants to answer a few questions for our blog, sharing some top tips and spreading motivation to hit our step goals.
This time, we’re excited to introduce Rozie Hussain.
We’re delighted to welcome Rozie into our Charity Right family and can’t wait to hear what she has to say.
So, over to you, Rozie!
1. Introduce yourself!
My name is Rozina Hussain, but everyone who knows me knows that I much prefer to be known as Rozie. I am married with 3 children. I have two boys aged 15, 13 and a daughter who is 6 Masha-Allah.
2. How’s your experience of fundraising going so far?
Alhumdulillah the fundraising experience is going good so far. I have been fundraising for a few years now and I feel it gives me a different purpose. It humbles me to think about those with nothing or very little. I hope to do some sort of fundraising for as long as Allah SWT allows me to, and gives me the strength and ability to do so.
I am fully aware that we are in difficult times with the current cost of living crisis in the UK and around the world. But people are generous, especially when we realise that charity does not decrease wealth.
May Allah SWT accept from all who donate and share, either once or every time, little or a lot, anonymously or not.
3. How many steps have you chosen as your goal, and why?
I have chosen to do a minimum of 5,000 steps per day, every day for the whole month of January. I manage to do a couple of thousand on most days, so I had to raise this if it was going to be a challenge!
I know that each day is different, and my weekends are very different to my weekdays so I went for an amount that would be challenging but realistic for me. Some days I will meet the goal by midday and others it may be more like 10pm but I will not sleep until I have done so. This way the Step Over Hunger challenge is in my thoughts when I wake up and when I go to bed.
4. How do you like to exercise usually?
Exercise was never a big part of my life for many years. However, as the children have gotten older, and me and husband even older, I found myself thinking more about diet, lifestyle, health and in turn exercise.
I recently had some time away from full-time work after Covid. During this time, I spent most mornings in the gym without fail. So much so that my family and friends thought I was moving into it! Now that I have returned to full time work (albeit from home) that is much more difficult, but I do walk – any time of the day, any day of the week, any month of the year, with whoever I can and for as long as I can… I love to walk!
5. Where’s your favourite place to go walking?
My favourite place to walk is in the mountains! The higher the mountain and the longer the walk to the top, the better.
Our lockdown family trips out of the house became family walking trips as I know they did for many people. This for me developed into hiking and trekking in a way that I did not realise. It was initially my husband who got me in to this. We would spend time with the kids walking easy walks in beautiful places given that our daughter was only little.
As I enjoyed this so much, he would take me on bigger treks without the kids and this has very quickly become a passion for me! We have hiked in the Peak District, the Lake District, Wales and Scotland. Allah willing – international trekking next – who knows!
6. What’s your favourite outdoor memory – as a child, family, or grown up!
My favourite outdoor memory – this was tricky as I have so many – especially from recent years as a family. But there is one that stands out like a tall mountain.
In August 2021, my husband and I alongside approximately 30 other people climbed Ben Nevis – the tallest mountain in Scotland and the highest peak in the UK. This was with a wonderful local charity known as SKT Welfare. We raised funds for the people of Palestine with all the atrocities going on at the time and still ongoing.
7. How do you manage to fit in your steps around your daily chores and tasks?
Some days it just happens quickly and others it doesn’t, and I must go for an actual walk to reach the goal. By the grace of Allah SWT, it is usually on those days that I need it the most; maybe I haven’t gotten out as much, had a busier day at work than normal and so although it is about reaching the target, often it is serving a purpose for me too – I come back from a walk feeling great and ready to tackle anything.
8. Do you have any tips or advice for anyone struggling to hit their step goal?
I think its important to have a realistic goal, one you know you can reach. So, I knew I could do between 2000-3000 easily most days so I set my goal for this challenge as 5,000. I knew I would be pushing myself slightly to reach this goal. It’s not too high that its not achievable but high enough to think about how I am going to achieve it each day!
The best tip though is to enjoy it –
Walk with someone you like spending time with, walk somewhere local instead of driving there if you can, walk for a few minutes where you would normally just sit for example watching tv. It’s only for a month (longer if you enjoy it) and a little bit of our time and energy could make a massive difference to hundreds of kids around the world.
9. Have you started any extra exercise to hit your step goal?
The best thing for me about this challenge is that I go for a specific scheduled walk on a weekend to hit my goal. Saturdays are busy with extra-curricular activities, but that means I take the time out to walk somewhere local, somewhere beautiful either on my own or with someone else for around an hour or so. There is nothing quite like a brisk walk in the outdoors to get the heart rate and endorphins going!
10. Your lovely son sometimes helps you get those steps in! Why do you think that Step Over Hunger is family-friendly?
I have two sons – one is aged 15 and the other 13 Masha-Allah. Step Over Hunger has become the talk of our house now.
The first question the kids ask me after school is how many steps I have managed so far. I now know just to tell them before they ask me. Some days the response is ‘Wow that’s great Mum’, on others it’s ‘Ooooh Mum still a fair few to go yet’.
The next question is how much has been raised? They are happy to share the link with their school and madrassa friends and hope that they will donate and share too.
They are happy to walk with me; whichever one is walking with me to reach my goal on an evening is not clearing the table or loading the dishwasher so it’s a no brainer for them. Just kidding.
11. Why support Charity Right with this campaign?
I came across this particular campaign on Instagram. I was already aware of Charity Right UK through other charities and walking groups.
As I followed and learnt more about the wonderful work that the charity does, I knew I had to get involved at some point, and then low and behold, the Step Over Hunger campaign pops up! That was Allah SWT answering my prayer to do something with this wonderful charity, so I signed up and here we are.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read this and hope you enjoyed reading it as much I enjoyed writing it. Insha-Allah.
