A Bradford-based restaurant chain has donated £25,000 to improve the lives of children and young people from disadvantaged communities across the UK.

Aagrah, the UK and Europe’s largest Kashmiri restaurant business with 15 branches across Yorkshire, raised the money at its annual charity business dinner held at the Aagrah Midpoint Suite in Thornbury.

The donation was given to Mosaic, part of the family of charities overseen by The Prince’s Charities, to help mentors go into primary and secondary schools to work with children to raise their aspirations and build up confidence and self-belief.

Last year, more than 900 Mosaic mentors directly supported 5,000 young people in more than 140 schools and in 14 prisons nationwide.

Aagrah’s managing director, Mohammed Aslam MBE, said the company was working closely with Mosaic to create a sustainable partnership between business and education, an approach he feels can have a positive impact for participating businesses investing in the future local economy. “We have committed ourselves to the effort of ‘giving back’, and we agree that the best focus we can have is on our region’s youth,” he said.

“We fully understand that our economy is still in the process of recovering and so we decided to put our attention to those youngsters who are less fortunate, specifically those working with Mosaic.

“We want to continue to support thousands of young people across the Yorkshire region to consider enterprise as a career choice.”

Founded by the Prince of Wales in 2007, Mosaic’s mentoring programmes create opportunities for young people growing up in the UK’s most deprived communities to realise their talents and potential.

Head of fund-raising David Hannam said: “We were delighted and grateful to be the charity partner for Aagrah’s 2013/14 annual fundraising dinner, for an unprecedented second year.

“Aagrah’s donation will, once again, greatly help us to provide inspirational mentoring support for more than 1,000 disadvantaged children and young people attending primary and secondary schools in the region.”

Previously, Aagrah has worked in partnership with Bradford Council’s Education Business Partnership, engaging more than 100,000 pupils in a schools competition focusing on Literacy and Numeracy.

The firm has raised more than £1.6 million through its charitable support to date.