Connected
We bring people together and help reduce loneliness and isolation.
About us
Rooted in community, focused on wellbeing
Hamwattan Relief and Development Foundation brings our Leeds community together through trusted, inclusive services, practical support and meaningful connection.
Our story
From Hamwattan Centre to HRDF
Since 2008, Hamwattan Centre has been a second home for our community in east Leeds — a place for a hot meal, gentle exercise, a friendly face and help in a language people understand.
As our community and its needs have grown, so have we. Hamwattan Relief and Development Foundation is the next chapter: a new charitable foundation, registered in October 2026, that carries on everything people love about Hamwattan while opening our doors wider — to children and young people, families facing hardship, people living with disability and anyone who needs a helping hand.
The name has changed. The people, the welcome and the cup of tea waiting for you have not.
Our values
How we work
Compassionate
We listen, treat everyone with dignity and respond to individual needs.
Inclusive
We provide culturally appropriate support where everyone feels respected.
Empowering
We help people build confidence, independence and wellbeing.
Our purpose
What we're here to do
Our charitable objects, in plain English:
- Relieve the needs of elderly people in Leeds — primarily, but not only, people of Pakistani and Kashmiri origin — through services, items and facilities.
- Relieve financial hardship by providing goods and services people could not otherwise afford.
- Advance education, relieve sickness and protect good health across Leeds and the surrounding area.
- Provide recreation and leisure facilities for people who need them because of age, youth, illness, disability or hardship.
Working together
Partners we've worked with
We're proud to have worked alongside these organisations to improve health and wellbeing in Leeds.
- Leeds City Council
- Age UK Leeds
- 100% Digital Leeds
- Active Leeds
- Touchstone
- Leeds Community Foundation
- University of Leeds
- University of York
- NIHR
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Help us build a better tomorrow for Leeds
Every gift, every hour volunteered and every partnership helps a neighbour feel less alone.