Hafla at Whiteways School

Story: Usha Blackham Photos: Farzana Khan

Around 200 women and children from around Whiteways School attended the Hafla (celebration) for international Women’s Day on 16th March 2009.

The event started off with a live band, followed by poetry read by Lorraine O’Reilly. Lorraine said:

“I had no women role models when I started writing, it’s important to me to speak to other women about writing, so they can see they can do it.”

Women also enjoyed pampering such as head massage, facial, henna, nail art and hair threading. Also there was a lucky dip raffle, refreshments and much more.

It was also an excellent chance for young people from Big Challenge to sell their natural and recycled products. It was great to see children work so hard to setup a business idea and promote it in their schools and at community events. The young women Rafaidah, Priya, Ummesalama and Henna said:

“It’s a really good experience. It’s really important that women are involved in business, they bring a different point of view to men.”

The highlight of the event was Multicultural dances including Arabic dancing by Zubaidah, Bollywood dancing by Aim to Dance.

It was good to see some mums and grandmas spending some time for themselves with their little ones and we hope to try and bring more families together in the near future. We have plans for activities with dads and granddads in the near future.