Invitation to Health Awareness Day 7th September 2013 from 11am to 4pm

Health Awareness Day- Family Fun Day Out

7th September 2013 from 11am – 4pm

Venue: The City Academy, Russell Town Avenue, Bristol, BS5 9JH

The below is a summary of the activities taking place on the day. It is a family event and children are welcome.

Please arrive by 10:45am to attend the launch of the event. We are very honoured to have distinguished guests present at giving speeches. All our guests are great role models for all especially for young people.

Launch of the event from 11am to 12 noon

Guests:

Kelechi Nnoaham – Service Director for Public Health

Kelechi Nnoaham has a background in clinical medicine. His career has taken him most recently to consultancy in public health in Berkshire where he focused on health protection and public health intelligence, whilst providing public health training to specialty trainees and Foundation Year 2 doctors.

Having completed a PhD in Public Health at the University of Oxford, Kelechi continues to undertake voluntary research in:

Predictive modelling of UK fiscal policy and chronic diseases
Secondary research synthesis and women’s health.

As co-founder of the Public Health Foundation of Nigeria, Kelechi’s international voluntary work includes designing and delivering capacity building projects for public health in those countries.

The Lord Mayor of Bristol Faruk Choudhury

Mr Choudhury, a Labour councillor for Easton ward, is also the youngest person ever to become Lord Mayor at the age of 38 as well as the first Asian and first Bangladeshi to fill the role.

His special campaign this year is to encourage people to give blood and register as organ donors.

Shaheen Chaudhry, High Sheriff

Believed to be first Asian female to be appointed to this role. She founded the organisation now called Health Links to improve access to healthcare whose the first language is not English and was a director of the organisaton for 16 years. Dr Shaheen Chaidhury also is a lay member on mental health tribunals across South West.

In her present role as High Sheriff she is raising awareness of young people suffering from mental health issues and to be a facilitator to allow people to talk to one another.

We also have opportunity to attend one of the following workshops. Both workshops will help us to support those who may need help in overcoming small or big life challenges or experience difficulties in overcoming challenges. These workshops will equip us to give something back to our community.

12:15 – 13:15 Emotional Wellbeing: How can we look after ourselves and others? Workshop 1

13:15 – 14:15 Emotional Wellbeing: How can we look after ourselves and others? Workshop (repeat)

12:15 – 14:00 Opening Doors to Good Health

There are other workshops equally interested as per attached fliers. We appreciate it is not possible to attend all the workshops. Please take opportunity to attend a few.

Diabetes

‘workshop’ on dementia and social inclusion in faith communities, introducing thinking around dementia and social inclusion,

There are many more activities for children and adults including Free Health Checks.

Doctor Bike (Fun for kids making their own smoothie generating power cycling a stationary Bicycle). Does your Bicycle need fixing. Bring it along for Doctor Bike to fix.

Please bring the event to the attention of your community members, friends and family. We are aware the best way to communicate to grassroots is through word of mouth. You are better placed to help us in promoting the event.

Diverse Doors Open Day Feb 2013

The day started with a buzz, meeting happy people to board on the trail bus. Those who booked on the trail were met at 162 Pennywell Road. The trail bus was full and 5 others were following the trail in their own transport or sharing a car.

At each venue everyone felt welcomed and were put at ease to ask questions. At each venue refreshments were available. One participant commented on the evaluation form ‘Not quite sure what is meant by ‘Access’. everyone in each venue “places of Worship” were inviting, friendly and welcoming which made me question myself as to why my behaviour in my own place of worship’. The Lord Mayor and the Lord Mayor Elect joined the trail party at St Marks Road Mosque, The Bristol Sikh Temple at Fishponds and at the St Nicholas Church. Due to a prior engagement The Lord Mayor was not able to Join us at the Hindu Temple and the Bahai Centre.

At each trail venue a talk was delivered on ‘faith in time of Austerity’. The common thread was inevitable in that all faiths have means of coping through bad times and always grateful for good times and accepting it with humility.

At St Nicholas Church we learnt how one can be proactive in preventing hardship and influencing various bodies to ease suffering in time of Austerity or those in poverty at any time. This was quite a contrast with other faith communities though perhaps not surprising as Black and minorities ethnic communities hardly participate in any consultations. There is perhaps scope for a better and constructive contribution to be made by minority faith communities in influencing policies that support the vulnerable in our society.

A few Faith places that were not on the trail reported back and confirmed it was a good day. The 2 synagogues were opened for a shorter period due to the start of a festival later that afternoon.

The Quran Academy had opened their door a week before and on the evening of 25th Feb. it was not possible to open their doors on 24th Feb due to classes.

It was noticeable a number of Muslims visited places of worship other than their own. We are also aware at least one Hindu female visited the Bahai Centre and the Church on the trail. In the previous years it was noticeable only British White Christians, seculars, Bahai and Jewish community visited other places of worship. The Majority of these represent mainly white British or other whites.

Most visitors were able to interact with both females and males in all faith places except in the Mosques. For example the visitors were welcomed and served food by both male and female members at the Sikh Temple , Hindu Temple, Bahai Centre and at the church.

One suggestion we would make to mosques is to encourage their women to come to Mosques and meet people. It would be acceptable for Muslim women to just meet female visitors should they not want to be in mixed company. One of the purposes of Diverse Doors Open Doors is to understand the spiritual and cultural etiquette which go a long way in understanding diversity.

As at 6th March we were given estimated numbers by 6 faith places. The total from those reported is 216. The total including those on the trail is 237.

Those on the trail visited 5 different places totalling 105 visits. We don’t know the number reported by other faith places visiting more than one place or not. It is likely they visited more than one place.

The development worker at each place made a note of ‘perceived ethnicity’ and of faiths if she was certain. We know 5 (Asian) Muslim excluding Lord Mayor Elect men visited the Sikh Temple, Hindu Temple,1 (Asian) Muslim male visited Sikh temple Hindu temple, Christian Church and The Bahai centre and One Hindu (Asian) visited the Bahai centre and the Christian church.

There were 7Asians in appearance, 4 Africans / Afro Caribbean and the majority were white in appearance attending the talk at QAB.

AGM and Conference ‘Disability and Accessibility’

On a damp and windswept evening early in November the Bristol Multi Faith Forum opened the doors of theUnitarian Chapel on Brunswick Square to welcome people to its Annual General Meeting. With members of the major faith groups in the city present along with representatives of the City
Council, the LGBT Forum and Disability Forum, the meeting received the annual reports, noting the growth in the Forum’s network of contacts and
the broadening of the engagement of different faith communities with each other and with the city over the year. Tribute was paid to the BMFF
Development Worker whose commitment to the work of the Forum has enriched its life and enabled more ambitious projects.

Concluding the business of the meeting we turned to consider issues of access and enabling participation for people with disabilities – in the buildings and practices of faith communities. In an informal and informative presentation the Forum heard of some of the issues and frustrations of people with physical impairments when encountering doorways, steps, toilet facilities. With the services of an interpreter we ‘heard’ the frustrations of a profoundly deaf person who longed to contribute to her community’s thinking and development and challenged community leaders to find volunteers to learn British Sign Language who could enable communications.
Another attendee was blind and highlighted the ways in which a partially or non sighted person could need the thought and understanding of their community in order to take a full and active part in its life. Another spoke of the issues arising for a parent of a disabled child in accessing a faith community building where she and the child could participate in worship and activities. It was good to hear first hand experiences and be challenged to think, to be aware and to make the often small changes that can make a big difference. All of our faith traditions aim to encourage
people into the worship and life of the community and the conclusion of the meeting was that we are all rightly challenged to listen to the need of people with disabilities to enable their full participation. It was an inspiring discussion and sharing it across our diverse communities was a healthy beginning towards change and inclusion.
Tracey Lewis