Asian Women's Centre does 'Ground Force' meets 'Come Dine With Me'

Last updated 8th February 2011

Over the last few years, the manager and staff have been looking at extending the service they provide to all women. Mumtaz Chatra, the BEST Leader, and the team come up with the idea to offer the service to other service users from their main day centre, Alderman and Bowen by way of a lunchtime garden meal.

To facilitate this event, work needed to be done to sort out a disarrayed garden, patio area and to purchase garden furniture. Mumtaz and the team put out a call for help. John and Jim , drivers from Alderman & Bowen, came forward to support them to clean up the garden area.

Before

After

Mumtaz and her colleagues had planned to apply to Dragons' Den to purchase the furniture but decided not to as they had already raised sufficient money. For the last five years, the Day Centre has been making curries and selling them to visitors, family and friends in the community. The money raised supported additional activities for the services users so that they could experience more community opportunities. The idea came about when the staff at the centre made a curry meal for the service users. The Laurels, a residential home situated next door, learned about it and asked if they could purchase some. The curries have become a real success, with more people purchasing them, so now every 3-4 weeks the centre cooks different types of curries, from chicken to vegetables.

With the garden sorted and the furniture bought, the staff and service users arranged a very tasty meal of both Asian curry and English dishes for eight service users and staff from Alderman and Bowen, along with staff and service users from the centre. Mumtaz said, "The event was brilliant, it allowed our service users to mix with a wider group of people, and to be able to provide a service that meets the needs of a mix culture of women is the way forward for us. We are planning to run similar events throughout the year".

If you are interested in a curry lunch, contact Mumtaz and the team at the Asian Women's Centre on 789 1952.