Gaining Insight

I was honoured to be invited by the An-Nisa network to a Community Iftar last night at the mosque in Sneinton Dale. We learned about Ramadan from the local school children reciting from The Quran; had a tour of the Mosque and joined the community in breaking their fast with some gorgeous food. And…….. a quiz about Ramadan which, after my failure to win anything at the Carlton Friendship Club, I’m happy to report that my team managed to win!

What a lovely evening, listening to the children, learning more about their faith and getting to know more people in the Carlton area. I met some teachers from the local school; had a great chat with Claudia from the City Council; met for the first time Fatima the new Muslim Women’s Officer, and had a brilliant time catching up with Shazia who I had run with a couple of years ago and coached to 5K as well as meeting her friends and family.

What was also lovely was to hear about how the power of connections and moving things one step at a time really do help people become more active. When I’d run with Shazia she’d told me about how much she and her children had got out of learning to cycle with Ridewise in the summer of 2020. She wanted to try to do more with the An-Nisa network in terms of getting more active. I put her in touch with Loz and Claudia from the City Council. They met up, got together with Ridewise and put on more cycling events last year at the Brendan Lawrence centre, helping about 73 people. They’re going to do the same this year, also utilising the safe outdoor space at Harvey Hadden. Shazia and one of her daughters are also now playing cricket (having been introduced to this by Notts County Cricket Club engagement work a couple of years ago) and they are now playing at a cricket ground in Mapperley Park as well as joining a local Ladies team. And Shazia is also now going to the Carlton Forum leisure centre.