CAYG - Croydon Asian Youth Group.

CAYG – Croydon Asian Youth Group.

Initially started up by Muneem Muzamdar and Muzzy Syed in 2004, CAYG is a group created especially for the youth of Croydon and encouraging young people around the area to get involved within the community.

The aim of this group was to attract many teenagers living in and near Croydon to get involved in many activities and helping arrange events which would lead on to raising money for charity. Many talented and skilful teenagers got the chance to get together and express their views and opinions of things going on around them. It originally started with 4 people, and now with over 100 members, the group is growing strong and moving onto a brighter future!

Every year, CAYG organize a show which involves various different performances by talented teenagers, including a fashion show sponsored by local boutiques. The show gets better and better each year raising even more money for charity. In November 2007, the show was taken to another level with professional equipment hired, makeup artists brought in making the show worthwhile with an even bigger crowd.

27th October at Fairfield Halls is where this year’s show, ‘Breakout’ took place. High expectations from last year attracted most of the crowd this time round. With a bigger and better location for the show, over a 100 people were expected to be there. This year’s show was in memory of Damilola Taylor and raising money for the trust. Stopping gun and knife crime on the streets of London is something we all need to work towards to make everyone’s future a positive one.

The show started off with the hosts of the show, Amz and Divya, making an entrance. Venus TV’s show ‘Ek aur Ek 11’ Salman and Farouk were probably the highlight of the show. With their hilarious jokes and wacky dance moves, the certainly made the crowd cry with laughter. The show carried on with an amazing dance performance by Fusion. The routine was great and got the crowd dancing too which was fun! Damilola Taylor’s father, Richard Taylor made a moving speech explaining the purpose of the trust he has set up in memory of his son.

The show continued with talented dancers and singers performing which takes guts I’d say! The whole show was wonderful and so well planned. The people participating in the show were so enthusiastic about it and took so much time out to rehearse for it too.

I hope CAYG continue to organize such great shows year after year and carry on raising money for charity. This not only helps the teenagers of the community getting involved in a good cause, but also helps to send out a positive message all young people!