Dar-ul Rahman Madrasa, Redbridge, London : Sunday 17 July 2011

Afghan Action’s advocates planned and organised an awareness raising event in Dar-ul Rahman Madrasa.

By Rahnuma Noor, Zainab Homan and Nilofar Samadi

Rahnuma Noor, Afghan Action’s Administration Manager, planned and organised an awareness raising event with the Principal of the Dar-ul Rahman Madrasa in Redbridge, East London, on Sunday 17 July and the event was led by Afghan advocates Zainab Homan and Nilofar Samadi. The target group was children and young people aged from 9 to 15. We ran 2 sessions, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, and altogether 150 children took part.

The main aim was to provide an opportunity to find out about Afghan life and culture – with a focus on Afghan food, clothes, books, carpets, kites, and schooling . Afghan Action was also able to introduce its work in Afghanistan and the UK. Zainab introduced the children to various aspects of Afghan life, including the country’s flag, food, culture and education system. She mostly focused on how the Afghan children were living their lives and also pointed out how privileged the children are who live in UK. Speaking from her own experience, she described a vivid dream she had of thousands of bullets hitting their home. Life in Afghanistan has been tough and dangerous for many years.

In a lively question and answer session, the children were curious about a wide range of issues and were sad to see photographs of young Afghan children living in poverty.

After the presentation, there was an activity session where children learned how to make Afghan kites – but unfortunately it was raining so they couldn’t rest them.

In the afternoon, children drew the Afghan flag and Zainab explained to them what each colour signified.

Things that worked really well:

• Both sessions were interactive and everyone got involved;
• Children were very interested to learn about Afghanistan and Afghan children;
• Children understood how privileged they were and wanted to donate money for Afghan children;
• They enjoyed kite making activities;
• The display of Afghan clothes was popular and especially attracted the attention of the girls.

Things that didn’t work well:

• Each session lasted only 40 minutes, so our advocates and the children struggled with the time available and would have liked longer. The Principal asked Afghan Action to organise another event;
• The rain spoiled the opportunity to fly the kites the children had made.

Afghan Action is now in discussion with the Principal about a further event which could allow sufficient time to engage with the children and answer their many questions.