Twenty-three year old Afrasiab Anwar, has been selected from hundreds of nominations to join a shortlist of 12 young people for a major new awards scheme.

Whitbread Young Achievers (WYA) aims to celebrate the achievements of young people nationwide who have really made a difference, with activity that has both benefited their community as well as contributed to their own personal development.

The awards recognise exceptional achievement in three categories: community, environment and sport. There are four nominees shortlisted in each category.

Afrasiab was nominated in the Whitbread Young Sports Achiever category, supported by Sport England, for his work coaching children as part of the Young Asian Children in Burnley project.

Afrasiab began volunteering in June 2002, committing eight hours per week to the project, which focused on football coaching. When it ended last summer due to a lack of funding, Afrasiab decided to charge each child £1 and subsidise the rest of the costs himself. He has since built on numbers with the group growing from just five children regularly attending to over 30 children across 3 age groups.

According to his nominator, Millennium Volunteers Co-ordinator Kay Lingley, Afrasiab' s commitment to his coaching is also giving young Asian men from Burnley the opportunity to be involved.

He has contacted the Sports Development Officers in Burnley for details of local tournaments to enter his teams. Kay says, "Afrasiab is an excellent role model to other Asian children..and has had a positive effect on his hometown of Burnley, which has recently been in the public eye with regard to racial disharmony issues."

The overall winner in each category will be announced at a special awards lunch in London on Wednesday 11 June 2003, where they will receive £2,500 for personal and project development as well as £250 in Leisure Vouchers and, importantly, 12 months' follow-up support.

If Afrasiab were to win the main award, he plans to use the prize money to re-invest in the project, purchasing a kit that the players could wear, paying for transport to and from the games and paying to send his volunteers on an FA Level One Coaching Award.