Womens Portfolio Report

The past two years have seen a plethora of initiatives carried out as part of the Women and Cultural Portfolio. The driving principle behind this pro-active approach was to be ambitious in scope but simultaneously deliver tangible benefits with regards to the welfare and development of the hard to reach women in the Sylheti community.

Moreover, it was encouraged that the target audience of these programmes would transcend their typical role by facilitating them to mould the direction of the projects in a way that would benefit them the most.

These programmes were targeted towards the important parts of our community, who had been held back from the essential information because of their cultural and language barrier. In order to have the widest impact possible, it was planned and suggested by Dr. Zaki Rezwana Anwar that the initiative would have a ‘snowball effect.’

This would work as follows: the initial training would be given to a group of 20-30 women on each session. As part of the training, each participant would be taught to pass on what they had learnt to 4/5 other women who would be able to benefit from sharing best practices. So, one event alone could yield health training for upwards of 100 individuals. In this way, just as a snowball gathers size as it travels along a path, the project would be able to branch out to target an increasing number of harder to reach women who could benefit from the programme.

The training, delivered by Dr. Zaki Rezwana Anwar, was conducted in the Sylheti dialect and in a non-technical way (devoid of jargons) so that participants would have no difficulty in understanding the key messages and be comfortable to nurture meaningful two-way dialogue.

Furthermore, watching her regularly cast the news on the television, it occurred to them that the face of the presenter was not unknown; it rather seemed as if she was a part of them. This also helped the rapport-building process in the sense that, they were able to ask her questions openly, clarifying any misconceptions that they may have had. Indeed, the response from the first session in Birmingham was so overwhelming that it soon became a priority to educate women on these matters in other regions of the country as well.

Further training meetings were organised in Manchester, Wales and Oldham, where the enthusiasm of the participants was evidenced by them staying until midnight, so that they could ask our Women and Cultural Secretary further questions. Such a relationship was formed, that not only did they participate enthusiastically, but they also kept contact with our Women and cultural secretary over telephone.

The programme appeared to engender a multitude of positive outcomes. For instance, participants have been encouraged to assemble their own basic first aid box, and are aware of the different sources of help which they can seek whether it is an emergency or otherwise. Given the success of the first four training sessions, it is hoped to expand the scheme to other parts of the country, where new ‘snowballs’ can generate their own momentum and hundreds more Bangladeshi women would be able to learn about how to deal with basic health issues that are prevalent in the household.

By the means of many informal discussions, it was revealed that numerous misconceptions would have remained unnoticed. Even in the cases of severe emergencies, they would not have known how to respond using some basic knowledge of first aid.

Cultural Portfolio Report

As far as the cultural side is concerned, a number of events were hosted by GSC throughout the past 24 months. A special cultural function was held at the Channel S Banqueting Hall to mark both the independence of Bangladesh and the anniversary of the establishment of the Greater Sylhet Council as a charity.

Vision for next term

The successes of the event of the cultural programme at the Channel S Banqueting Hall spurred a new idea as we look towards the future; a DVD of British-Bangladeshis performing renditions of the most notable works of Hason Raja, Shah Abdul Karim, Radha Romon , Doorbin Shah and other poets, composers and lyricists of Sylhet. By means of this proposal, our vision is not merely to create a generic production only featuring the famous songs, but it will be endeavored to intersperse the performances with historical facts and figures pertaining to the key protagonists in enriching Sylhet’s cultural development.

Viewed in this context, the aims are twofold. Firstly, it will be a means to introduce these arts to the younger generation of British-Bangladeshis who may not have had much exposure to it and hence foster a genuine enthusiasm (some piece of work will be translated).

Secondly, the DVD will showcase the richness and diversity of the Sylheti culture and heritage to the wider national and international community, thereby immortalising spirit which was kindled by Sylhet’s most noteworthy authors, poets, composers and lyricists.

The proceeds from the sale of the DVD and donations from sponsors will then be reinvested in furthering cultural and women’s activities both in Britain and in Bangladesh using the existing infrastructure of GSC. Some ground work has been done on this and support of any individual person or organisation will be appreciated by writing their names on the DVD.

Our women and cultural secretary believes that, to give birth to her this idea, funding is the second most important ingredient, the first ingredient is – OUR WILL TO DO IT!