The Well Multi-Cultural Resource Centre

We’ve just come to the end of a very busy week in The Well.

On top of the routine information and advice work we squeezed in the first of our 25th anniversary celebrations – our Chai & Chat group organised and hosted an afternoon tea party for the women who attend our various activities and they also invited the women from a neighbouring project – “The Space”.

I’ll let Sarah tell you all about it:

International Tea Party to celebrate 25 years

The Well enjoyed the first of a few planned celebrations yesterday to recognise its 25-year anniversary. This first event focused particularly on the work The Well does with women and children. The Well supports women from various ethnic minority groups in the Govanhill area by tackling some of the issues that face them, from social isolation to poor English skills. One-to-one relational support is offered as well as a range of group activities including female only English and IT classes, ‘Bubbles’ mother and toddler group and ‘Chai and Chat’ a group of women from varying backgrounds and cultures who meet regularly to get to know other women in the area.

It was the Chai and Chat group that inspired the idea for yesterday’s event: an expanded Chai and Chat representing all cultures present and open to women who have used The Well’s services and their children, along with some of The Well’s supporters ranging from funders to church representatives.

The event was an explosion of colour, culture and cake! Over 120 women came along to the event that was held in Govanhill Free Church, and approximately 30 children. The Well’s dedicated volunteers were on hand to play with the children and welcome people and serve the fabulous food. Some of the women who regularly come along to the Chai and Chat group took the lead under Penny MacLeod’s (Women’s Development Worker) direction in decorating the room for the event and preparing the delicious food that included delicacies such as: Romanian Walnut Cake – made by the women of The Space and Pakora made by two Chai & Chat women.

Manager of The Well, Rhoda Yarmahmoudi, thanked everyone for coming to celebrate The Well’s 25^th anniversary and Penny MacLeod for organising the event. Everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to The Well when a special commemorative cake was brought out.

 

Look out for more events to celebrate The Well’s 25^th anniversary!”

 

 

 

The Next Day we were delighted to welcome members of the Go For It Team along with the Moderator of the Church of Scotland – The Right Rev Susan Brown.  Go For It has helped to  fund The Well for 5 years, and we are extremely grateful for the huge difference their contribution has made to The Well, and were delighted when they asked if they could bring the Moderator to visit us on Wednesday.

What a great time we had with them, including a discussion about John 4.  One of our long term service users, and most recently recruited Board Member – Lolo, told them of the massive difference The Well has made to her life over many years, including her somewhat unusual request to source a memorial stone that she could take to Africa in memory of her mum.  Lolo went on to say there are other advice centres and she had been to many, but kept coming back to The Well due to the friendly atmosphere – she always sensed that The Well was about relationship and this is what made it stand out from everywhere else.

 

 

We’re just about to turn 25!!

Our hope is to the make the next year a year of mini events that will celebrate our Silver Anniversary starting with a Chai & Chat celebration with local women from all backgrounds on the 26th March.

This will be the launch of our Chai & Chat at home events.  No matter where in the country you are, you could have a Chai & Chat at home to both celebrate the 25 years and make our work more widely known.  (Would be amazing if we could have 25 Chai & Chats for 25 years . . . . watch this space as to how you can be involved)

Last week I accompanied a young woman to an appointment. We were early and so decided to have an ice-cream. She was so happy, and told me that she’d not had an ice-cream ‘outside’ in five years. She’d been little more than a servant in her marital home, but things have changed and now she is able to enjoy being outside!

On Tuesday of this week Jan spent ages trying to help a young man access his wages – which were now on a card, but he couldn’t pass the security to validate the card with his most recent salary amount, which he didn’t have. Finally on Wednesday he was able to get the information he needed, passed security and was a very happy young man. He said to Dougie “I’ll buy you a coffee!”

Yesterday Jaan was helping a young family who were in deep distress – I happened to be in the same office. Jaan did an amazing job of helping the young woman work through her anxiety. Later I said to the woman “Our Injil (gospel) says that we are not to worry about tomorrow, as each day has enough trouble of its own.” We discussed how at times we worry about things but actually we have no idea how they are going to turn out! I then asked her “so what is your worry for today?” She was silent for a few seconds, looked at me, smiled and said “honestly since I’ve been in here I feel my worries have gone and I just feel hope and peace!” I laughed, hugged her and said “I think your worry for today is “what am I going to give those kids for their dinner?” She burst out laughing and said “that’s exactly what I was thinking!”

There you go it’s just another week in The Well . . . if there’s such a thing! But we’ve got a real and urgent problem! These stories can only happen because of our dedicated team of wonderful volunteers, but we don’t have enough volunteers to cover all the shifts at the minute. Recently three of our volunteers moved away, or have family commitments and are no longer available, so we’ve lost cover for SIX shifts! Whilst the rest of the team has been willing to fill in the gaps as they can, that is not sustainable and for the first time in over 24 years we are looking at having to temporarily reduce the number of advice sessions, at the same time as the needs are growing.
Please pray about this and ask God to send us the right volunteers to fill in the gaps.

But it’s not just in the advice part that we’re struggling:-( Bubbles – our mother and toddler group – currently has no volunteers to work with Penny in the new session. No volunteers, means no Bubbles! The priority for Bubbles is the relationships that are built with the women and we know from the comments they make, that this is a vital service and part of our work – so another urgent prayer request for you!

Please get in touch if you want more information, or feel this might be for you!

 

 

For the past year we have benefited from Sarah’s help with our funding applications.

Sarah fitted in quickly and easily to the team, and we certainly benefitted from her youthful enthusiasm, confidence and marketing experience.

So we were disappointed when Sarah got a new job, which meant she would no longer have the time to commit to The Well.  We are thrilled for her, knowing that she was looking for a new challenge in her professional life, but we do feel her lose very keenly!

It does mean that we are once again having to look at how we manage the fundraising side of the work.  Penny is able to commit one day a week, but we do need more than that, and just now we are considering a team approach – perhaps a group of volunteers who would be able to help out a couple of hours per week or month?

Recently we were given funding from St Margaret’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Newlands to run a parenting class for some of our Mums.

Since April we have been meeting every Wednesday morning in Govanhill Free Church, with a group of mums primarily from a Pakistani background, but also one Romanian mum was referred to us from The Space, a local agency that we share a common ethos with.

We have covered such subjects as “looking after yourself” “the importance of words” “boundaries” “listening” “play” and much more.

It was lovely every week to have Gail and Ailsa look after the children, and Shaida doing both the hospitality and translation as required.

I’m pretty sure that the children’s favourite thing was the messy play every week!

The mums thoroughly enjoyed our sessions and we had a special time today, encouraging them to build good memories with their children.