Hello I am Bibi and I am a Volunteer at Aawaz.

I am starting this blog to share how myself and my other volunteer sisters help with Aawaz charitable work.

Hello everyone, gosh we are end of August now!!

This month we the volunteers have been busy with organising day trips and outing for Mothers & Children. We have had a trips to Blackpool, Lake District and Bradford.  Everyone enjoyed their days out. It made everything feel so much more worthwhile.

I shared with you last month that we have been fundraising to help our wonderful Mayor of Hyndburn Cllr Noordad. I am so pleased that we have collected just over £400!!. What an achievement and the money we know will go to such good causes.

August has also meant a month of doing some housekeeping duties so I helped organise the rotas for us volunteers, we have had a clear out of our volunteers cupboard and I have organised the volunteers board!

Its also been a time when many of us have needed to take more time to  spend with our children and just enjoy the summer days.

Hi everybody we are at the end of July now and what a hot hot month it has been!!

This month has been so full on, we have had some great community engagement activities, Information stalls, visits and we were at the Connecting Cultures event at Oakhill Park.

Another task in hand for us was to collect some donations for The Mayoral Charity. You will know that Councillor Noordad Aziz was appointed as the Mayor of Hyndburn last month. His charities that he will be supporting during 2026/2027 are Derian House Children’s Hospice, Milly’s Smiles, Laurie Solomon Kidney Dialysis Centre and East Lancashire Hospice. All charities that are doing such great work. So we the volunteers decided we will do our bit, we have  been baking again, crafting and collecting some funds.

Oh and some ever so exciting news Aawaz has been selected as one of the four finalists in the Radio Lancashire “Make a difference awards” we are in Community Group of the Year category. So proud to have been selected, you mean our group we the volunteers all are feeling so great about this.

I have been also busy helping with the Mother and Children activities during the last week, as schools have finished and children are at home. I must also tell you we have organised a number of day trips as well so looking forward to doing it all in August.

Dear All, June is coming to a close and we the volunteers are planning lots of fun activities for summer!

We have carried on working hard and welcoming everyone with a smile and a brew, but we have also been listening to what the ladies feel they need. So our volunteer group have been coming together this month to think about how we can support all mums with kids, and those ladies who are on their own through the summer holiday period.

We have held a small baking sale and collected some donations and we plan to use these to help with some outings, picnics and other simple activities.

I am so proud of us all volunteers we always come together and work so well together.

Oh my May has brought with it lots of new learning.

We have been participating in a listening skills course for us volunteers. It is surprising how hard it is to listen properly and to pay full attention. We all practiced actively listening. I tell you this training has made us all think seriously about how we listen and what we take in.

May has felt a short month because we have had the two bank holidays and May also brought our Eid-ul-Adha celebrations. We have all had some days off to spend time celebrating Eid with our families and friends.

I have also put my name down for “Importance of interpersonal communication” course, so look out for my feed back on how I got on.

We are now looking to conclude our consultation “What women want” so we have four more session left. I have enjoyed being part of this consultation exercise and I have leaned new things and feel more confident about asking the questions and facilitating the discussions.

April is a great month when we have all been busy preparing for our new activities programmes

This month we are also planning for some day trips and outings as well as some volunteer organised get together events.

Most of all I have found the training that was provided by Aawaz so useful. You see we are consulting lots of women about what they want, what they need. We have decided to call it “What Women Want”. Don’t you think that’s a catchy title?

I was involved in devising the questions and we had lots of discussions about what we needed to ask how it would help Aawaz and other agencies.  I was keen along with my sister volunteers to learn how to consult, how to start those important discussions, how to ask the questions and most of all how to actively listen!  The consultation is continuing and I will keep you all updated.

March has been busy we have celebrated the end of Ramadan

Everyone has started to get back into our normal volunteer routine now. We have been helping to organise the Coffee Morning and the Chai & Chat group. Its been great. I met so many new people, men and women who live in Accrington and surrounding areas who came along to our coffee morning/ chai and chat groups.

I have agreed to be part of a volunteers group who are going to help with a consultation programme at Aawaz. I am a bit nervous but we are attending the training and briefing session organised by Zulekha so I am sure I will be ok.

February has been quite different this year because Ramadan started mid way through

All of our volunteers want to take break during Ramadan. Everyone wants to be with their families and focus on the significance of Ramadan, fasting and praying. So I helped to devise a rota so that we can still be there for the ladies who come to Aawaz to help to offer our support.

Having said that we have had some excitement a very important meeting with a very important person but I can not say anything about that yet!

We have also revised the Aawaz activities programme during Ramadan month and the Centre opening hours are also adjusted to take account of the fasting time table.

During January our volunteers group has been busy welcoming the new work ladies

You know what they say ” New year New You”. This year we have quite a few new ladies joining in all the learning activities that Aawaz provide, so we helping them settle in. Its nice when you go somewhere and there is a friendly face that is what we provide.

We have also helped to organise the official opening of the Aawaz Arts exhibition. It was so wonderful the Mayor of Hyndburn cam to the official opening and we also joined the unity choir to sing a special song to welcome him and the audience. I do hope you will visit the Haworth Art Gallery to see our exhibition.

I find the role of volunteer so rewarding it helps me to learn new things and to be more confident when I am talking with people.