Sonya Nisa
Actor Sonya Nisa joins us as a new celebrity ambassador and will use her experience in care to help the charity fight for a better care system.
Sonya went into care at three-months-old. By the time she was 14, she had lived with five foster families and at one children’s home. At 17, she was pushed into leaving care and moved into a property with no hot water or central heating and black mould everywhere. On her own with no support, she had to work out how to pay bills and afford to eat while juggling studying musical theatre at college.
Currently starring in Waterloo Road, where she plays teenager Aleena Qureshi, with parts in BBC1’s Casualty and Netflix dramas Red Rose and Damsel already behind her, Sonya, 26, has reached a stage in her career where she wanted to give something back, and found Become.
Sonya Nisa says:
“When I came across Become and heard about their End the Care Cliff campaign, I knew I had to get involved. My friend had just moved in with me, who is care-experienced, because she had nowhere else to live. That’s because of the lack of support she got when she left care. The threat of homelessness is always around the corner for care leavers and it’s not right.
“I’m in a position to raise awareness of the challenges care-experience young people face and help them feel seen and heard. Become stands shoulder to shoulder with care-experienced young people and I am proud to now stand with them, to help improve the care system now and for the future.”
Sonya has already worked with Become to promote the charity’s End the Care Cliff campaign, raising awareness of the support that’s stripped away when young people are made to leave care at 18, and how that leaves one in three of them facing homelessness.