The Friendship Cafe

The 'FC Girls' as they like to be called, giving a presentation in Cheltenham about their personal experiences and thoughts about being British Muslim teenagers. Well done to the girls and Zaheera for the effort in putting together an informative evening. 

To keep up to date visit the Official Cafe News link on the left or send an email to thefriendshipcafe@homecall.co.uk for monthly updates

Below: Saturday 25th July 2009 at the Troxy, London's East End.

Ashraf the mechanic (in the red) v unknown opponent weighing 1 stone more than him. I did give him sharia compliant shorts but he didn't wear them - which may explain why they both got disqualified. Imran is now a retired boxing promoter/trainer.

The Funday held on Saturday 30^th May at Widden School fields and was blessed with fantastic weather and an action packed day. Despite coinciding with the FA Cup Final, the opening of the Gloucester Quays, and the Tall Ships Festival, over 700 people attended to have a go on the rock climbing wall, try out the archery, see the balloon making, or challenge good friends to a duel on the Bouncy boxing or Gladiator posts. There were also bouncy castles and an amazing falconry display as well as information and local stalls to browse through, as well as arts & crafts, henna painting and face painting.

Running the day felt like managing a huge open air wedding but it went very smoothly and our appreciation goes out to all those who helped, including many new hands and the children and young people who volunteered tirelessly for what was a very hot day. The young people who use the Friendship Café or go out with the activities played a tremendous role in all aspects of the day and we hope that this responsible and caring attitude takes them further into becoming community workers and volunteers in the near future.

We made approximately £1944 in profit from the day and expect a further £750 in total on top from Wall’s and Eon, courtesy of Farouk Mehta and Shoaib Kathrada so the grand total is approximately £2694. This money will be used towards making improvements to the Friendship Café, in particularly to improve the toilets.

In addition to thanking our volunteers, we must thank all our local businesses and organisations who, as always, support any events we hold with great generosity. From my list to thank (apologies if I have missed anyone), these include Gloucester Hardware, Continental Foods, Bismillah Butchers, Al Murad Textiles,  Motalas, Vauxhall Mart, Asda & Walls Ice Cream and Eon. Qari Rafiq Patel and Tim Cooper from Madressah al-Marwatain and Widden Primary School respectively were also extremely supportive as well as Bren McInerney from the B&T Trust centre for arranging the sponsorship of the Climbing Wall and Fair Shares for the bouncy castles.

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