The focus of this fund was to support BAME infrastructure by helping BAME organisations and groups access National Emergencies Trust (NET) via the UK Community Foundation (UKCF) network of Community Foundations.

This project helped us to contact, engage, interact and understand other smaller BAME Community groups in the area we serve. Our aim was to help and encourage local BAME-led organisations particularly targeting the small groups to apply for available grants. All in all – we supported nine groups for this project. Unfortunately, due to lockdown restrictions we were unable to help many other groups as the project lasted only three months. One Nigerian group, one Afro/Caribbean group, one group with mixed trustees and six Asian groups. All the groups are dedicated, passionate about their work and keen to provide support and services to the community. However, lack of funding makes it awkward for them to produce their best. Individual support plan was devised for each group and groups were told to contact either by phone or email any time. Also, groups were given access to our ICT facilities. It’s a well-known fact that smaller community groups fill the gaps in the services and reach many neglected and hard to reach members. They speak different community languages which helps them to connect with the community. Building trust with community is very important. Smaller BAME community groups need support and recognition as they are hard press to show their track record and constant flow of income hindering their progress. Groups need continuous support in bid writing, monitoring and building infrastructure.

Based on our experience of running this project we made recommendations that the groups need funding for capacity building and for project delivery with focus on local groups serving the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Also based on successful Zoom conference and consultation with other groups by UKCF a report was produced. The excerpts of the report are given below.

Nearly all of the community foundations surveyed are seeing a growing demand for the following services: food and essentials, mental health services, technology and IT, social isolation and domestic violence support services.

The impact of closures and decreased capacity of local VCSOs will have a wide and far reaching impact on the communities they serve. These include: an increased strain on statutory services, a reduction in volunteering opportunities and the loss of irreplaceable community provision.

Funders can take immediate actions to ensure that their systems and processes aren’t barriers to local VCSOs delivering vital services to communities. These actions include: supporting tried and tested good practice, providing core cost funding, taking a flexible approach to grant-making, encouraging collaboration rather than competition, and improving the financial stability of local VCSOs by providing multi-year funding.

Community foundations are being responsive to the needs of local VCSOs and communities. The place-based community foundation model is enabling innovative grant-making programmes, ensuring local people have a meaningful say in how funding is allocated, and being adaptive to the different needs that the pandemic is creating.

Using recommendations from organisations that received funding from UKCF’s BAME Infrastructure Fund, the report also sets out the practical steps that funders can take to ensure that their systems and processes are inclusive and accessible to BAME-led VCSOs.

The work on this project is continuing….

Even though the duration of the grant was for three months, we are still seeing groups and helping groups we have already seen as the process will help to provide the much-needed services to the community.

The Great Greenwich Grand Tall Ship Festive Show

Sunday 11th December 2016 (From 1 pm to 5.30 pm) 

At Shaheed Udham Singh Asian Community Centre, White Hart Road, Plumstead, London SE18 1DG

This Great Greenwich Grand Tall Ship festive extraordinary show was organised to make it unique with full of historical narratives about Great Britain, India and Canada along with the shipping history of the three nations to link up with the Tall Ship Regatta. Each narrative was followed by performance and a Bollywood anecdote. This distinctive show was a grand mix of Entertainment, Edutainment and Enlightenment plus the Bollywood fun, dance drama, suspense and comedy. Our main intention was to encourage the local artists and groups to display their talent and create awareness about the rich cultural tradition that exists in the RBG and also which happens to be the main strength. Through this project we have managed to highlight the historical relationship that existed between Great Britain, Canada and India the jewel in crown taking a trip down the memory lane to the glorious Victorian times and the British Raj focusing on the shipping history, migration, discovery of new horizons and the adventures of the people from the sub-continent.

The hall was fully occupied and the majority of the audience who have attended the show were present from start to finish. The feedback from the audience was very positive and encouraging. 

The stunning crowd pulling dance performances at the Tall Ship was very impressive on each day and has opened up a different venue for us to perform. The dancers were wonderful and the performance was fabulous.

The Tall Ship Regatta

Royal Arsenal Riverside

Thursday 13th April to Sunday 16th April 2017

Programme

Thursday (13.04.17) – 3.15 pm – Performance by the Nupur Jhankar Dance group from India: 

This dance group is made up of members representing different parts of India. They excel in combining the ancient dance movements of the South with the modern trendy Bollywood beat of the North. Alka and group have worked very hard over the weeks finding time between work and family for the Tall Ship Regatta. They have created an amalgam of music mixing three Bollywod chart buster, the first of its kind. They attracted many visitors to their dance item The Worshipful Mayor of Greenwich described their dance as ‘wonderful’ and stayed to watch the performance

Friday (14.04.17) – 12.30 pm – Performance by the Vijaya Tollywood Dance group:

This group takes its inspiration from Chennai based Tamil & Hyderabad based Telugu films popularly known as Tollywood. This group provided entertainment with dance items accompanied by trendy Tamil and Telugu film music.

Saturday (15.04.17) 3.30 pm – Performance by the Mauritius Dance Group:

Volcanic winds of change – No, Gentle summer breeze – Yes

With traditional Mauritian costumes the dance movements blended together the fusion of Afro moves and the French square dance. They performed to the packed audience on the main stage and gave the feeling to the audience that they are part of their performance. 

Sunday (16.04.17) – 1 pm - Mixture of Nupur Jhankar Dance group and the Vijya Tollywood Dance group:

The final performance also attracted a large number of visitors and both groups danced to the music in the open air. Many members of the audience joined in. 

Azadi70 - UK INDIA YEAR OF CULTURE 2017

(Saturday the 21st of October 2017 - 5 pm to 9.30 pm)

The play ‘Azadi70’ meaning Freedom70 recreated the historical freedom struggle during the last decade of the Raj to the present day by the extensive use of historical facts and the use of literature and poetry mixed with background music and songs representing the seven decades of the independence. The aim of the play was to connect and inspire the residents of all age groups of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Many families who live in the Royal borough were displaced due to the partition and the play brought back memories of the past and at the same time created historical and cultural awareness among the younger generation. Inspired by the Kinetika ‘Silk River Project’ which captured the experience of journeying along the two mighty rivers Hoogly and Thames by producing a scroll our play unfolded the history and the bonds of friendship through the eyes of an immigrant. 

The play was based on the story of an immigrant born in undivided Indian and starts in the year 1943 when the freedom struggle movement was at its peak with the background song ‘Door hato duniya walo Hindustan hamara hai’ (Please move away, India belongs to us) leading to the midnight of 15th August 1947 when the famous ‘tryst with destiny’ speech was made by the first Prime Minister of India Mr Jawaharlal Nehru and when Lord Mountbatten the last viceroy became the first Governor general of India. This was followed by the horrors of partition on both sides of the border are described in the background song ‘Dekh tere sansar ki halat kya hogai bhawan, kitna badal gaya insaan’ (See what has happened to the world oh God, how mankind has changed). The inspiring song ‘watan ki rah mein watan kay naujawan shaheed ho’ (For the sake of the motherland sacrifice your life) set the theme for the rest of the play.

Grand Vaisakhi (Community Harvest Festival) Dinners

Venue: St Marks Church Hall, Old Mill Road, Plumstead, SE18 1QE 

Saturday the 6th of May 2017 from 6 pm to 10 pm 

The ‘Thanks giving Community Harvest festival’ is celebrated throughout the Indian sub-continent under different names. It’s popularly known as Vaisakhi in the Punjab region of India/Pakistan. Now the festival is celebrated throughout the World where the sub-continent diaspora has settled. The festival also coincides with the New Year day. We celebrated this festival by hosting a grand dinner party for the local residents in the Royal Borough of Greenwich with live music and full programme of activities. The event brought home away from home connecting the Western vibrancy with Eastern solace, mixing traditional folk of the past to the present day popular pop, bridging the gap between the old and the young, keeping alive the magnificent culture and the rich heritage, making connections among diverse communities and finally leaving the impression of an ultimate Community Harvest festival dinner in the Royal borough of Greenwich. 

Mr Matthew Pennycook, MP for Greenwich & Woolwich was our chief guest for the evening. The dinner was also attended by Cllr Angela Cornforth – Council Chief Whip, Cllr Don Austen - Chair of Pension Fund Investment & Administration Panel and prominent members of the community & faith groups. 

Ameen Hussain, our Manager welcomed the guests and throughout the dinner traditional music was played in the background and the programme concluded with vote of thanks from our coordinator Kulvinder Rayat. 

Saturday the 11th of May 2019 from 6 pm to 10 pm

As part of our aim to provide services to the community we applied for Tesco Bags of Help grant in order to raise funds to host our Annual Vaisakhi Community Harvest Festival Dinner. We were shortlisted for the May/June 2018 vote in the Greenwich area. The grant came too late to host the dinner in 2018, hence we hosted our dinner on the 11th May 2019 soon after the 2019 Harvest Festival. 

The moment our charity was shortlisted for the grant we started our publicity campaign. We designed leaflets and distributed at all our contact points. Wide publicity was given through the local press. They were kind enough to publish the news twice, once allocating the full page. Extensive use of social media was made to promote the project. A link exclusively for the project was put on our website. Also thanks to our members, volunteers and staff for their word of mouth publicity. Apart from promoting Tesco this publicity also indirectly helped our charity as this created interest and generated many enquiries regarding our work and projects resulting in increased membership.

Once the date was fixed, a hall to host the dinner was booked keeping in mind popular location, ease of access, disabled facilities, clean washrooms, fire exits and stage etc. The menu was chosen keeping in mind any dietary requirements, religious/cultural needs and also the tradition of Harvest festival. Invitations were sent to all the VIPs and publicity leaflet was designed. We are very pleased that the Worshipful Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich Cllr Christine May, the Deputy Leader of the Council Cllr David Gardner, Council Chief Whip Cllr Angela Cornforth, Chair of Housing & Anti-Poverty Scrutiny Panel Cllr Clive Mardner, newly elected councillor Cllr Ann-Marie Cousins, representatives from Woolwich Gurdwara Sahib Ex- Mayor Dr Jagir Sekhon with Mr Gurmukh Singh, President of Ramgariha Sikh Association Mr Davinder Kundi, representatives of Bannockburn Hindu temple and members of local community/voluntary groups accepted our invitation and attended our dinner. From our contact list we invited hard to reach community members.

On the day the hall ambience was given the illumination effects and DJ music to reflect the Harvest festival culture. The Worshipful Mayor was the first to arrive and added the aura of joy and cheerfulness and set the tone for the evening. Her speech was full of grace and elegance. The Deputy leader followed with his speech full of brilliance and eloquence. The long-time local councillor and ward member made a brief and touching speech followed by other councillors. 

The feedback from the guests and the VIPs was very positive and the very successful and memorable evening ended on time at around 10 pm. 

The dinner helped us to celebrate the cultural diversity, brought the communities together and bridged the intergenerational gap. The dinner was another very successful project. 

Saturday the 9th of May 2020 from 6 pm to 10 pm

Due to Corona Virus lockdown, we were left with no option but to cancel this dinner. All the funds were used to distribute cooked meals and groceries to families, individuals, unemployed, frail and elderly, people living on their own without any outside contacts, victims of domestic violence, refugees with no recourse to public funds, victims of evictions, people with long term illness etc. This heralded a new direction for our projects as our food distribution highlighted that food insecurity is a long-term problem and the Covid-19 pandemic brought this to the fore for public attention. As our project progressed we came across many heart-breaking stories and made our resolve even stronger that there is a need to find sustainable solutions to address this problem of food insecurity in local communities.

Saturday the 30th of April 2022 from 6 pm to 10 pm

After hosting a very successful Vaisakhi (harvest Festival) dinner with the help of Tesco Bags of Help grant in the year 2019 we were very pleased that our application for this year’s dinner was also successful. This provided us with the opportunity to publicise the good work that the Tesco Bags of Help grant in the community and also at the same time depict our charity as the leading BAME charity in the Royal Borough of Greenwich that provides much needed services to the community in the form of a variety of projects.

The impact of the pandemic Covid-19 for two years has been an eye opener in the area and has created a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability making people anxious and vulnerable. However, our dinner helped us to revive the community spirit and it was a welcome change for many.

The lockdown posed few problems for us and there were apprehensions among the community when it was lifted with the news of the virus and the uncertainty. Once the decision was made to host the dinner, we designed the leaflets and distributed to all our contact points. Extensive use of social media was made to promote the project. Also, thanks to our members, volunteers and staff for their word of mouth publicity. Apart from promoting Tesco this publicity also indirectly helped our charity as this created interest and generated many enquiries regarding our work and projects resulting in increased membership.

Once the date was fixed, a hall to host the dinner was booked keeping in mind popular location, ease of access, disabled facilities, clean washrooms, fire exits and stage etc. The menu was chosen keeping in mind any dietary requirements, religious/cultural needs and also the tradition of Harvest festival. Invitations were sent to all the VIPs and publicity leaflet was designed. We are very pleased that the Worshipful Mayor of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, councillors and representatives of faith groups accepted our invitation. However, the Worshipful Mayor was unable to attend due to chest infection.

On the day the hall ambience was given the illumination effects and DJ music to reflect the Harvest festival culture. Barring the Worshipful Mayor, glitterati of wonderful guests came in.

The feedback from the guests and the VIPs was very positive and the very successful and memorable evening ended on time at around 10 pm

Drop-in sessions

Our daily drop-in sessions provide information and advice including sign posting, referrals, interpretation, translation, telephone advice, accompanying clients to service providers, help with online form filling and appointment booking for Visa, OCI (Life-long Indian visa) and Passport, provide advocacy and encourage residents to participate in local consultation meetings and third sector forums. Due to the pandemic lockdown, we had no option but to terminate this project.

Healthy Living Project

In partnership with Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) we run their ‘Healthy Living’ project which provides support and advice on Health & wellbeing, Finances. debt, Social activities, friendship, Smoking, Active living, Healthy food, Losing weight, Keeping fit, Managing illness/condition and Keeping warm in winter. Our Coordinator continued this project during the Covid-19 lockdown working from home and provided the much needed help and support for our Food Distribution Project. 

About our Tall Ship Festive Show

“Great Show, next year you make sure that you don’t do it too near Christmas. Do in November or in January. Stayed from start to finish. Enjoyed every bit”.

“Thank you for inviting us. We very much enjoyed the entertainment and it was lovely to catch up with some people we hadn’t seen in a while. Thank you for putting such a lovely, inclusive event and thank you once again for inviting us”

  “Thanks for the invite I thoroughly enjoyed the Programme vir ji I admire your hard work and the energy you put in the community work your knowledge and presentation was great I have lot to learn from you I know you are always there for me I wish I could stay till end. I thank you again god bless you with good health happiness and prosperity

Have a wonderful Christmas and happy new year”

“The sound, I think is ok for youngsters. Too loud for me. Anyway, I enjoyed the show”.

“The show was really good….shame I couldn’t stay till the end so didn’t see all the performances…kids at the beginning, Sandhu uncle n Irish dance was really good…n ur speech was also very good…well done & many congrats on organising such a great event”.

“You made the show worthwhile. It was quite good. I enjoyed very much. Thanks for inviting me”.

“The food was good. I took some sandwiches and ate on my way home”.

About Azadi70 

"We want another show".

"Thanks for arranging this. Late start but great evening. Great dances".

"Fantastic story & play by the Vijya Tamil group".

"We applaud your effort to bring back history. Good for our younger generation to know their history”.

“Weather was very bad on the day. Very cold and windy. Once in the hall we were very comfortable and the show was excellent. Brought back the childhood memories of independence”.