On the 30^th November we had the launch of the Bedford Bangladeshi Council which was a huge a success. A lot of time was committed into organising the event. A lot of our volunteers helped with the catering/ distributing leaflets and posters and also with the set up and the clearing of it at the end of the day.

We had approximately over 250 people attend the event. We had various people from statutory and voluntary organisations hold stalls such as Health Horizon, 0-19 Inform, Children’s Services, Pine cone children’s Centre, NHS and Bedford Police.

Bedford Bangladeshi Women’s Association also held a stall to promote and give more information about the services we provide, what we have achieved and what we would like to do in the future. We also had a leaflet to display the need for more volunteers and how they could benefit.

We had local MP Patrick Hall, Councillors, Journalists from Channel S and Bangla TV (digital channel 786 and 813) attend on the day. The day was a huge success it was family orientated event. We had face painting, balloon modelling and a children’s entertainer. The community were able to find out more about what Bedford Bangladeshi Council would be and most importantly be able to nominate for a position.

We have since been working in partnership with Shackleton Lower School working in Partnership with them to introduce Bangla classes after school, as there are a high number of Bangladeshi pupils attending that school.

Many of our Volunteers will be teaching and working as teaching assistant. We have completed CRB’S for all. All our volunteers have been generously giving their time to help produce resources to run the classes. Letters have gone out to parents and we have had a positive interest. We have had a meeting on the 23^rd of January with the Head teacher and parents to inform more on how this will be delivered and how their children will benefit from this. The Bangla class will be officially be starting once a week after school from 3:10-4:30pm at Shackleton lower school on the 04^th February 2009.

We will be looking into more training to help our teachers develop themselves. We have booked First Aid Training for our volunteers on the 14^th of March which is a Saturday with British Red Cross.

I look forward in telling you more about the Bangla class and Bedford Bangladeshi Council.

Winning the two grand was a great joy for BBWA, especially as it was Ramadhan at the time when we did our pitch to the panel of dragons. Believe me the count to the final day was hectic, however was a huge relief when our pitch was over, so was part of my mental stress.

However the phone call to say we had won the prize money, I can’t put to words how excited and pleased I was ‘’ finally we had money’’ to start planning and developing more services to deliver to our service users.

We were invited to the AGM of Bedfordshire and Luton mental health and social care partnership trust (BLPT) and were honoured to receive the award.

However since then we have been extremely busy making plans to further develop the aims of the group.

On the 18th of October we organised an Eid party. It was held at a local venue for women to come and celebrate the end of Ramadhan, with their friends and families. We arranged activities such as bouncy castle, colouring competitions, facials, massage and a raffle for all to participate and enjoy. Not forgetting we had a huge variety of Asian food ordered for the day, as well as prepared by our volunteers and members. Our volunteers and members took huge responsibility and ownership in the running of the event. The day was a huge success with a turn out of over 200 people. We had a journalist from Bangla TV (digital channel 786) come to do some recording to show the event to the wider community on their International community news.

One of the main areas we wanted to focus on with this money was in providing training to our volunteers especially First Aid, Health and Safety etc. We have already had meetings with Bedford College and have received quotes from them. We are looking into providing the training in dual language (English/Bengali) and are considering costing and value for money. I will let you know more of this once we know more.

In the meantime BBWA are working alongside members of the Bangladeshi community, voluntary and statutory bodies to launch the formation of Bedford Bangladeshi Community Council on the 30th of November 2008. We will be helping to organise the event. Our volunteers will be playing a huge part in distributing leaflets, preparing refreshments, helping to set up, transport and direct people to the venue.

We will be holding a stall and intend to provide a huge amount of information on BBWA what its all about, what progress the organisation has made to date and what its aims are for the future. We will also be producing a newsletter and a leaflet to recruit more volunteers to the group to further expand and strengthen the key aims of the project.

I look forward to giving you feedback on this event very soon, and progress on the training for our volunteers.

Shamela Khatun