Event by Afghan Advocates in Hefazothe Islam Centre

Progress Report on Afghan Action’s (AA) Building Bridges Event delivered by Afghan Advocates on the 5th May 2011 at the Hefazothe Islam Centre in Plaistow East London

Muhammed Mafizur Rahman, Kabir Ahmed and Abu Bakr have conducted and delivered an event at the Hefazothe Islam Centre on the 5th of May 2011 in Plaistow East London from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Refreshments were provided throughout the event. In total 22 people attended the event in which all were male. 3 were Afghans, 1 Indian, 1 Somali and 17 Bangladeshis.

The age range was as follows:

20 to 30 – 7 people
31 to 40 – 5 people
Over 40 – 10 people

Training, Documentation and Activities

During the workshops, the participants were provided with the following information:

• A presentation and description on Afghan Action (AA), its mission and values and its involvement in the Building Bridges project
• The historical and socio-cultural background of Afghanistan
• Top tips on organising successful events and initiatives for awareness increasing purposes

The following activities took place throughout the event:

• A flag activity - small groups was challenged to put together the Afghan flag. A set of four jigsaw flags, one being the Afghan flag, all mixed together, were given to small groups.
• 2 short video clips were played. One was on Afghan sports and the other was about Afghan women, children, education and poverty. While watching the 2nd clip the attendees were asked to answer five questions which could be found in the video clip.
• The final activity split the attendees into groups of 2-4. They were asked to write down 5-10 things that came into their mind when thinking about Afghanistan.

The primary role of these activities was so to interest and inform attendees about Afghanistan and also to get attendees talking about Afghanistan and different aspects of life there

Outcome

A short questionnaire about Afghanistan was used at the start – the average score was 40%. At the end, the questionnaire was used again – the average score was 86%. This shows a significant increase in the general knowledge and understanding of Afghanistan of participants.

All 22 of those attending were men. One of the Afghan participants had served as a general and also a provincial governor in Afghanistan. Two other Afghans work locally; they shared their positive and negative experiences and deep frustration about the present situation in their country.
Although it was a small group, throughout the whole session it was very interactive and all participants showed great interest in wanting to learn about Afghanistan and its people. I strongly believe we achieved our outcomes and was very happy about the responses and feedback received on the day.

With regard to the feedback forms, most of the participants stated that the workshop had been very helpful in increasing their understanding of Afghanistan. It was very good to have three Afghans present to share their experiences and feelings about Afghanistan.