Hawzah News Agency - (Hartlepool  - UK) - Young members of Hartlepool’s Nasir mosque began the New Year by cleaning up the nearby community.

The early morning event on New Year’s Day was part of a national community clean up campaign where the members of the Muslim Community throughout the UK do similar clean ups across the country.

They collected several bagfuls of litter from the surrounding streets after meeting at the mosque in Brougham Terrace before sunrise.

Mosque Imam Tahir Selby said: “We feel this is the best way to celebrate the new decade by striving to help the local community.

“We want to teach our youth the importance of cleanliness, which is a fundamental teaching of Islam.

“Likewise the importance of serving the community in any way we can.”

It has been a busy festive period for the mosque and its youth members who visited Exmoor Grove child residential unit and Lindisfarne care home.

They also helped the homeless and donated to town food banks, and the mosque was requested to help Radio Hartlepool give gifts to children through social services.