Dr. Sarita Rao, a leading radiologist at Ipswich Hospital has become the latest person to serve on the board of Suffolk’s leading civil rights charity.
Sarita, who has lived in Ipswich since 2005, joins 10 other citizens to provide strategic guidance and support to the growing family of organisations run by the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) which includes the Suffolk Law Centre, the Living Rights Project and Tackling Discrimination in the East.
Sarita explained her reasons for becoming a trustee: “In my job I get to see a wide variety of people from lots of different backgrounds and I wanted to contribute to a community-based charity that strove to ensure the fair treatment of all in our wider society.
“ISCRE has such a vital role in making people from different ethnic backgrounds and cultures feel accepted in our county. The alienation and exclusion of some young people which leads to them being led astray and sometimes into crime shows how important the charity is in being the voice of the excluded.”
Chris Cumberbatch, chair of ISCRE’s trustees said: “Sarita is a new and very welcome addition to our team as she offers many skills and insights through both her professional and personal life.
“Whilst many charities are struggling to recruit trustees, ISCRE seems blessed with having the active involvement of so many great people at board level. It is one of the key reasons why ISCRE is able to deliver vital legal and other services, whilst elsewhere in the country many council for racial equality have folded.”
A key focus of the Suffolk Law Centre (SLC), one of ISCRE’s most recent new initiatives, is to ensure that it is financially sustainable in providing legal advice and representation. As a result, the ‘Friends of Suffolk Law Centre’ has been established and aims to give businesses and individuals the chance to make regular donations, no matter how small or large, in return for being kept regularly up-to-date with information as to how SLC is improving peoples’ legal outcomes.
Anyone interested in becoming a Friend of Suffolk Law Centre should contact Sue at: suew@iscre.org.uk
