A 10-year-old schoolgirl was full of joy after winning the Young Active Citizen Award.

The award is given to a special young person or group of volunteers who are making a difference in the district.

Zahra Ahmed, a 10-year-old pupil at Byron Primary School in Barkerend, was nominated for her ‘Connections’ project.

Her nominator said: “Zahra has created a project that tackles racism and stereotyping. Zahra had a vision for everyone to be ‘kind to one another’ and started planning what she was going to do to make the world a better place.

“Zahra has also delivered a speech to the whole school educating them about equality and respect.

“Zahra has organised and helped plan a workshop with REN (Race Equality Network). She has also delivered a 10 minute speech to the rest of her school about kindness, fairness and equality.

“Zahra worked beautifully with her friends, sharing passion and enthusiasm to reduce stereotypes and racism in her community.”

At the time of her nomination, Zahra said: “I feel super honoured to be nominated. I want to inspire other youngsters to follow their dreams and make the world a better place. If I do win I will live up to that achievement.”

The award was presented by Bradford Council’s chief executive Kersten England.

The council chief handed Zahra the microphone as she accepted her award on stage.

She thanked her parents and the Venturists, a Participate-run programme which hopes to unleash young people’s potential to create change in their communities.

Describing how she felt, Zahra said: “Really honoured, really happy.

“I’m going to try and make my project get bigger and bigger and spread over Bradford.”

Ms England joked that Zahra could be a future council chief to which Zahra responded: “Yeah!”.

Zahra’s mum, Salma, described it as a “wow moment” for her to witness as a parent.

She told the Telegraph & Argus: “It was just a wow moment. I can’t describe that feeling but I was so thrilled. It has got to be the happiest day of my life.

“I felt so proud knowing that people can now see that spark that I always knew she had. I admire her courage to shine, to help, to rise. I hope she can use that light to help others.

“I will always guide her to follow her passions and achieve her goals. I hope this award encourages her to take on this journey to make the world a better place.”

In an earlier speech about the Community Stars Awards, Ms England said: “This is all about people living their best lives in this district, that’s what we want.”