Our Work in the UK
Who Are We?
We are based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and focus most of our efforts on supporting local migrant and refugee communities as they adjust to the challenges of life in the UK.
We primarily deliver projects that focus on improving health & wellbeing. Our own experiences and statistical data has shown us that migrants in the UK suffer from having worse physical and mental health than natives. We want to close the gap between the two groups.
Exercise
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, we have been running online exercise classes over Zoom. As we offer classes that support all abilities, they have become hugely popular across the community with both people who regularly exercise, and those who have never taken part in organised exercise before. We started with a group of 20 women, but grew to over 120 per week at the height of lockdown.
Food
Food is central to our culture, but also central to a healthy lifestyle. We found that rates of obesity and diabetes were higher in our community than compared to people born in the UK.
This is due to a lack of knowledge of how to cook healthy, cheap, convenient dishes with the ingredients that are commonly available in British supermarkets. To counter this, we have run numerous online and in-person cooking classes that teach migrant families how they can make healthier dishes in the UK that still give them a taste of home.
Cycling
Cycling is a national pastime, a great form of exercise, and an affordable method of transport. However, a large proportion of migrant and BME women in this country do not know how to ride a bike. We set out to change this, one woman at a time, by partnering with a local organisation – Pedal Ready – to provide a free cycling course to refugee women in Sheffield. So far we have taught many women to ride, and collected donations through a community outreach initiative that has enabled us to acquire bikes for a number of women in our community, who would otherwise be unable to afford them.
