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Salamunalaykum, Khawateen committee consists of a chair, a vice chair and a secretary. The working team has 5 project co-ordinators who provide services mainly to our women and young people within the community. Within our team we also have a supervisor from Muslim Youth Help line and a sub committee board member from HIB. The focus of the committee is to provide services where possible, identify needs and bring awareness to the community in identified area. This has been carried out through lectures, seminars, focus groups, camps, outings, leaflets and discussions. Activities carried out since the last meeting held on 22nd November 2005.
Positive Parenting
Effective Parenting’ Seminar held in Birmingham, UK The Khawateen Committee of the Council of European Jamaats in collaboration with the Women’s Desk of the World Federation held a one day Seminar on ‘Effective Parenting with an Islamic Perspective’ on Saturday 17th December 2005 at the Zainabiya Centre in Birmingham. The Seminar was conducted by Dr Abdul Bari, an educationalist with a PhD and PGCE from King’s College London and author of the book ‘The Greatest Gift – A Guide to Parenting from an Islamic Perspective’. Dr Bari has broad experience in Youth and Community work and is a member of the Inner Cities Religious Council and Pan-London Advisory Group on Faith as well as being a facilitator of Race Equality Unit’s ‘Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities Parent Programme’. Dr Bari started his Seminar by comparing ‘Community Parenting’ in the past to ‘Parenting Today’, stressing that parenting is a proactive deliberation of doing things with children. There is a great need to understand not only the developmental but also the psychological and sociological aspects of a child’s life. Skills to raise children in Islam, he emphasised, will involve consideration to time changes as ‘yesterday is different from today’. Bereavement Support Group The Bereavement Support Group has offered training to almost all the jamaats volunteers in befriending and have supported in some level of counselling training. It is now a year and a half since the group at Stanmore has been active with 7 members. Sister Fatima Virani and Sister Zeenat Datoo are joint co-ordinators of the group. The initial contact to the bereaved family or individual is made by them and services are discussed at the initial contact. The BSG of Khawateen Committee has been a corporate member of Harrow Churches since last 2 years and their support and services has been very beneficial. The membership fee of £200 includes free training and discounted rates for their conference as well as sharing experiences with other Group Leaders on a regular basis. As a bereavement visiting group it is essential that the workers receive
supervision sessions every 6 weeks with a professional counsellor who has a special interest in Bereavement. These sessions are set up with the Harrow Churches and have found to be very useful. Since this year the group is only paying for the 6 weekly supervision rather than the yearly membership of £200 as the initial support is no longer a necessity.
Young Girls Camp (8 – 11yrs)
A young girl’s camp was organised on 30th May – 2nd June 2006 at Birmingham. A group of 32 girls stayed over 3 nights at the Seyeda Zainab (A.S.) building in Birmingham centre for the 3rd COEJ Young Girls Camp. The camp was priced at £85 pp. The girls were between the ages of 8-11 and came from various UK Jamaats. The focus of the camp is to bring awareness to our younger members of the community of their Islamic duties and responsibilities when they enter their buloogh age. The girls were given a mixture of religious and self development workshops. They were also treated to a trip to the theme park and the science museum ‘ Think Tank’, which they thoroughly enjoyed. There was a midnight feast and a quiz on Thursday night which was rounded off with Namaaz-e-Shab. The girls besides having tremendous fun and enjoyment also built many warm friendships. The sharing, caring and helping experience that they had will Inshallah be to their advantage in years to come.
Summer Camp for Girls (11 – 16yrs) The annual 7th girl’s camp shall take place at: Llanrug Outdoor Activity Centre Wales Inshallah from 31st July to 6th August 2006. The cost is £259 (all inclusive).
Llanrug Outdoor Activity Centre is situated in North Wales on the edge of Snowdonia National park. It provides extensive opportunities for hill walking, climbing, canoeing, kayaking, cave and mine exploration. Workshops on self development, friendship building and self esteem are part of the theme. Simultaneously Special consideration is given on responsibilities of becoming baaligh and making aware of their roles and responsibilities towards their parents and their communities. Annual Ladies Sports Tournament This year’s 11th Ladies Annual Sports Tournament is due to be held Inshallah in Birmingham on 2nd and 3rd Sept 2006. There was a consideration and try given to hold term leagues following suggestions made by various jamaats sports co-ordinators following last years tournament. However after a long chase to individual jamaats sports co-ordinators, it was not possible this year due to delayed response. Inshallah the tournament will involve sport such as, football, netball, swimming, table tennis and badminton. Women's Health Khawateen sub committee have been working closely with the HIB board in this area. We have been provided workshops on Breast Cancer awareness during the screening programme delivered to Essex, Wessex, Milton Keynes, Hyderi, Peterborough and Stanmore jamaats. On 26th April 2005, Health questionnaires were distributed to all women members of the jamaat in order to identify the health needs within the community so that services are better focussed and targeted to the right age group. The questionnaire was designed so that young members of our community starting from age 10yrs to over 70yrs could identify their needs and choose the type of delivery method. Here is a summary of the results from the Khawateen ladies Health Questionnaire 2005/06 survey. Total no. of questionnaires collated were 310 from the following 7 jamaats - Leicester - 30
- Peterborough - 46
- Milton Keynes - 44
- Essex - 16
- South London - 31
- Stanmore - 39
- Birmingham 100
- Unknown - 4
The most common topics that women wanted more info about across all the jamaats were as follows - period problems
- weight problems/obesity
- mental health/depression
- pregnancy/contraception/childbirth
- HRT and menopause /breast cancer
- heart disease
- diabetes
- visual/hearing problems
The first 5 topics in the list were the most popular that all the jamaats seem to require more information about. I have recently spoken to Sweden jamaat representative to send us the completed questionnaires in order to evaluate their jamaats health needs amongst their female members. Women Awareness Day Inshallah this year Khawateen Committee is planning to organise a women’s awareness day during the bank holiday weekend in August. Venue is yet to be confirmed. The day will be divided in providing various workshops in - Parenting covering 3 main age groups i.e. under 5s, 6 – 11 and 12- 18yrs
- Health workshops: focussing on providing information and awareness in identified issues collated through the questionnaires
- Information on finances and bereavement support service.
The open forum will give opportunity to our women and young people to share and explore information, ideas and issues to further develop and gain access to opportunities within the communities. Ongoing Activites: Khawateen sub committee of CoEJ continues to engage and work along side with other sub committees within CoEJ and with the WF Women’s Desk. Khawateen committee has representatives in each jamaat and extends their dialogues and communication with the jamaat chairladies within Europe. The Committee continues to have regular 3 monthly meetings (face to face or teleconference) with their board members to ensure smooth and effective running of the committee. The committee have produce leaflets on their current involvement and information on current projects. We are also in the process of producing leaflets on the Bereavement Code of Conduct for the practitioners and for the service users. Khawateen Committee is aware of the Child Protection policies and ensures that the necessary documents are up to date i.e. Insurance and CRB checks for volunteers and important details in handling children are adhered to. Our volunteers are first aid trained in case of emergencies at camps and sports events. |
