Chandra Shah's blog

EKTA, the South Asian Service User group I have been working with, are coming together at the end of this month  for a joint celebration of two of the major festivals in the South Asian calendar.

We will be honouring the Muslim holiday Eid Ul-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and the Hindu Diwali, or festival of lights. The evnt will feature a talk on volunteering opportunities and a performance of Khamoshi, the Hindi play on mental health and domestic violence devised by one of Open Up's London Initiatives.

I have been pleased in the last two weeks to receive some very encouraging feedback about Khamoshi. Khamoshi is an Open Up London Initiative and they have recently been performing their play about mental health and domestic violence in the South Asian community. I would like to share some of the audience's comments with you below.

Opportunity to engage at a free BME elders event

PRIAE ( The Policy Research Institute on Ageing and Ethnicity) and the International School for Communities, Rights and Inclusion (ISCR) at the University of Central Lancashire are holding a series of inter-active workshops designed to explore and promote better mental health care for BME elders :-

Manchester -- 2nd March 2009
Birmingham --3rd March 2009
London -- 16th March 2009

Deadline for registration -- Friday 13th February 2009

My name is Chandra Shah and I am the Open Up regional London Coordinator. I have mainly been working for the last 2 1/2 yrs with the BME community in Harrow, Wembley, Harlesden, Kensington, Chelsea , Westminster and Brixton. In the new year, I hope to extend my work to other parts of London. Recently in the last 8 months I have been very successful in forming a South Asian service user group called EKTA (60 members) which meet once a month and get sign posted to various other meetings & events.