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.

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.