Newsletter
My Experience at Birmingham Settlement – Sister2Sister project.
The following report was written by Aisha about her experience as a volunteer with Birmingham Settlement as part of the Global Xchange programme with Changemakers.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to work with your organisation as a volunteer in the Sister2Sister project. My greatest appreciation goes to Chris who has constantly been in touch since October, Rahiel, Meena and the entire staff at the Centre for the Aston Family who were really supportive. It has been my great pleasure to work with Faeeza too as she is a lady with a vision, she really inspires me in so many ways. I have learnt new skills and other ways of doing things and I know this will help me in the near future.
During my period in the Sister2Sister project I have been involved in the following areas:
- Administration and planning:
- Helped in the preparation for registration (The CIC Form and the Application for Registration Form), the company’s Constitution (Memorandum of Association, Articles of Association) and the Funding Form.
- Assisted in coming up with the company’s Mission Statement, Objectives, Logo, Action Plan, and Calendar of Events.
- Prepared a questionnaire and a membership form.
- Participated during the re-launch dinner of the company, which was attended by 250 local women in Birmingham (I approached the women, introduced the company and also helped filling in of questionnaires and membership forms).
- Helped in the preparation of the company’s policies and procedures.
- A focus group/coffee morning with the women in Aston at the Centre for the Aston Family and wrote a report.
- Prepared a press release for the company.
- Attended an arts and crafts session with the women.
- Came up with a questionnaire database and a membership database and hence wrote an overall report for the questionnaires analysis and the focus group among other things.
It was really interesting to see how the women in Aston community have the passion to learn new things and how they appreciate being involved in activities that aim to empower them. This was very evident through their turn up during the arts and crafts sessions we had and through the questionnaire response and the focus group.
Through Chris’ efforts I have also been able to meet Rachel from Birmingham Citizen Advice Bureau Services (BCABS), who has helped me see how the Human Resources Department operates in BCABS. She has fed me with sufficient information that I really needed to know and am also pleased to have had a chance to work with her though it was such a short time.
The experience that I have had so far has really changed my perception about the way things can be done within a very short period of time. I hope to use this experience to empower my community back in Kenya as soon as the programme ends.