IT MAY have taken a year of plugging away and improving her skills but the 50 year-old mother-of-two made it.

And last Thursday she got the letter to prove it. Qamar Qureshi became one of the many hundreds of people the Barnabas Centre in Ilford has helped into gainful, properly paid, sustainable employment.

Coming to Redbridge from Pakistan, via Birmingham, the qualified teacher found the path out of unemployment blocked by her lack of English and lack of confidence.

But these were two things the volunteer staff at the charity Barnabas Workshops could help her with.

"This is really a marvellous centre," said Mrs Qureshi, "they've really given me a great deal of help. I have been out of work for a year and I joined this centre in September to do an English course and it helped me get more confidence.

"They also helped me in CV writing, helped me improve my CV and gave me some pointers for interviews."

And now after all her hard work to find a job Mrs Qureshi will be able to focus her energy on doing the job she has been trained to do, teach, after getting a position as an Urdu lecturer at Waltham Forest College.

Started 10 years ago by 14 churches, the aim of the Barnabas Centre is to help the long-term unemployed, vulnerable members of society and really anybody needing its services, into work.

And last year 289 people from Redbridge are now better off thanks to its help.

But as a number of grants have come to the end of their life the charity needs your help to carry on the good work.

So it is good news that it has recently been singled out by the new Mayor of Redbridge, Cllr Ashok Kumar, as his charity for the year.

The mayor said: "The Barnabas Workshop is a charity which provides its clients with help in discovering their self worth and how to overcome barriers in finding employment and in finding and keeping suitable worthwhile jobs."

Named after one of Christ's apostles, who was known for being an encourager, the ethos of the Barnabas Centre is to do just that, encourage people to do the best for themselves, from all walks of life.

Chief executive Bernadette Benn said: "We have so many different people come here. We have Polish and Lithuanian people, and people from Pakistan and India. They come here and want to get a job but they don't how to go about it.

"We have mothers looking for part-time work. We go out into the community and find people to help by going to places were the homeless are fed.

"But we are not a job centre. We give career advice and make sure the work people get into is sustainable and with proper terms and conditions."

As well as not being a job centre the Barnabas Centre helps run training courses and there is always somebody on hand with encouragment, as Steve Todd knows from experience, how to help people through courses in IT, English and maths.

The 46-year-old former labourer, who has done charity work in Greece every summer for the past 10 years helping abused animals, wanted to be in a position where he could easily pick up work for six months a year in England.

"I wanted to get into IT and administration, something I could temp with," he said. "I heard about this place through a friend and they've been really encouraging. I've got my European Computer Driving Licence, and the British Computer Society Levels one and two. I took them in just under three months and they've been really great here, I was really encourged to stick with it and now I'm going to see a job broker in Ilford."

Needing £250,000 per year to keep going, the centre is in real need of funds to keep up the good work getting people into work.

Mrs Benn said: "We are absolutely delighted to be named as the Mayor's charity as we are struggling for funding because we are not mainstream providers of help. This appeal has been a real lifeline for us as the Government grants to adult providers have been cut. "