Dear Newham Voices,

I wanted to write and let you know how pleased I was with your pilot issue. While there are many articles I could express my positive opinions on, it was the Black Lives Matter statement on page two that excited me the most.

It was refreshing to see the clear stance you intend to deliver in your mindful efforts to avoid the stereotyping and negative profiling that so many national papers still exhibit. It gave me faith in your paper as well as the desire to support it.

I found your Fact File on Policing article to be compelling reading and I shall certainly use the statistics when discussing police and race topics with friends from now on as I felt my understanding on these issues increased as a direct result of said article.

While I know that racism can be a difficult subject to tackle, I think that Newham Voices have shown themselves to be made of the right stuff to guide the people of Newham in the right anti-racist direction.

In addition to those articles I was delighted to see further stories that highlighted positive stories concerning black people. I was completely unaware of the campaign on Canning Town footballer John Francis Leslie whom I had never heard of despite being from Canning Town myself. I intend to investigate him further and support the campaign. With so much joy received from issue one, I look forward to reading issue number two.

Kind wishes,

Ms Julia Omari

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