Introducing Garima Rathore

There is a new face at our Footsteps shop and cafe in Cheltenham, Garima has just moved to the UK from India and has already got involved as a volunteer with our charity. I caught up with her via Facebook:

15:59

Hi Garima, welcome to Global Footsteps!

Hello

You have been volunteering in our Footsteps shop in Cheltenham for about 2 weeks now is that right?

Yes, now i am more confident about working there.

How are you enjoying life in Cheltenham so far?

It's goin very fine.. I'm enjoying in volunteer centre

You're originally from India, but which part exactly?

Yes.. Delhi region

Are there any similarities between Gloucestershire and Delhi that you have noticed?

By this time i didn't found yet, but this is very nice place, I love it!

What's your favourite place in Cheltenham? (You don't have to say the Footsteps shop!)

Eating places .. I like most is Gianni's and Nandos and Sudeley castle, but I have visited very few places so far.

I'm sure you will discover more and more as time goes by, where else in the UK or Europe would you like to visit?

all over but, priority is UK

I recommend a visit to Wales, but I am from there, so am biased!

okay accepted.....I would like to go there.... we are planning to Cardiff for a weekend in February.

Great!

Tell me a little bit about the things that interest you.... have you been involved in any work to help others or the environment before?

Yes, in India.. I gave tuition to the students... to help them in their studies, it was like evening classes... for 2 hrs

Like a homework club?

yes..

What do students in India enjoy studying?

Lots, but the reason for those classes was that they belonged to very poor families.. and we provided them with help

with their problems in studies.

I see, it sounds similar to the work our link project in Bangladesh is doing.

What other activities would you like to get involved in while you are in Cheltenham?

Nothing much yet... I'm searching a part time job too... to make myself busy.

Well I wish you good luck with that search, I hope you find some enjoyable and meaningful work!

Thank-you very much for volunteering with us, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Yes... I love that place too!

Thanks for chatting, see you in the shop soon!

Global Venture to Bangladesh

On July 6th four young Global Footsteps members will depart for Bangladesh on a twp week fact finding visit to the newly established community capacity building project, the HRA Foundation in Nowder village, Bishwanath, Sylhet. The visit is being led by Global Footsteps co-ordinator Morgan Phillips who will be accompanied by two young film makers, Josh Sanger and George Allen, who will document the trip and a trainee teacher, Alice Matthews. Alice has made links with the Gloucestershire based education initiative ‘Sharing Communities’ and will gather resources on their behalf.

As well as the HRA Foundation the four will visit several other NGO projects and several other key people involved in improving life for the ordinary citizens of Bangladesh. On returning to the UK they will report back to the Global Footsteps membership the wider community through a short documentary film and a series of presentations.

Global Footsteps has closely assisted Mr. Arosh Ali, founder of the HRA Foundation, in creating a new charitable trust The Friends of Nowder. Mr Ali has lived in the UK for over thirty years but felt moved to transform land and buildings left to him by his late father into a centre to serve his home community. The HRA Foundation is two years old and provides primary healthcare and education for all as well as vocational training for men and women. The Friends of Nowder is a grant making organisation and hopes that the HRA is the first of many similar projects it will support. The goal, in time, for the HRA is to be a self sustaining project funded primarily by an on location women’s textile cooperative and eco-tourism facility. It hopes to grow in line with Social Business principles.

Cheltenham MP, Martin Horwood, is a keen supporter of The Friends of Nowder and will become its patron. He had the following to say about the project and the forthcoming visit:

‘Having worked for Oxfam in the past, I know the immense value to poor communities of well thought out projects based on local knowledge. This project should improve health and education in this very poor part of Bangladesh and empower local people to earn more income and improve their situation. But it’s essential to make sure the project is well run and this trip by Global Footsteps is an important part of that plan. I wish them well.’

Friends of Nowder

On Sunday 24^th January Global Footsteps members Arosh Ali, Mary Paterson and myself met at the Friends Meeting House in Cheltenham with a host of others involved in the formation of The Friends of Nowder charitable trust.

Arosh Ali has been a member of Global Footsteps for about a year now, he came to us to see how we could help him establish a UK based charity that would support the work of the HRA Foundation, a community capacity building project in Arosh’s home village of Nowder in rural Bangladesh. Since the day Arosh first walked into FootSteps we have been helping him conceptualise, organise and now formally establish the Friends of Nowder. Friends of Nowder will perform three roles. In the first instance, and most importantly, it will raise money to send as grants to the HRA Foundation to help it grow and flourish in three main areas: Education, Primary Health Care and Women’s Empowerment. Secondly, Friends of Nowder will raise awareness amongst the UK population of the issues surrounding development in Bangladesh and the wider developing world. Thirdly, it will advise start-up or emerging community projects that have similar aims and goals as the HRA Foundation. The HRA Foundation has been in operation for just over two years, thanks to the tireless work and enthusiasm of Arosh Ali, once it is well established Friends of Nowder will look for other projects to fund and support.

Sunday’s meeting was also attended by Jerry and Sue Barr from Bishop’s Cleeve who continue to provide invaluable advice and support to the project. Friends of Nowder are also tremendously fortunate to have Martin Horwood MP as a patron and he was on hand on Sunday to witness the official signatures of the first three trustees of Friends of Nowder: Mary Paterson, Tariq Rashid and myself.

Mary visited Nowder early last year and has since been very keen to help the HRA get off the ground. I will visit Nowder on a Global Venture later this year to assist in the production of promotional materials including a documentary on the work being done to cope with and eradicate poverty in Bangladesh. Tariq is also keen to visit Nowder in the near future and we hope to invite an employee of the HRA to the UK on a Global Venture later in the year as well as to Footstep 12 in Slovakia this August.

The links between the HRA Foundation, Friends of Nowder and Global Footsteps represent a fantastic step forward for our charity, it will bring with it many opportunities for improved intercultural understanding and education about many environmental, sustainability and development issues. We will do everything we can to help it flourish and grow.

by Morgan Phillips, Global Footsteps Co-ordinator

'Friends of Nowder' meeting @ FootSteps

We held a really excellent meeting here at FootSteps last night, to discuss the formation of a new charitable trust ‘Friends of Nowder’ which will operate in the UK to raise money for The HRA Foundation, a community capacity building project in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. The HRA foundation was set up by Bangladeshi born Cheltenham resident Arosh Ali, a member of Global Footsteps; we have been working closely with him to develop the foundation.

As word has spread about the HRA several individuals have expressed an interest in finding out more. With this in mind Arosh Ali and Global Footsteps invited them all to FootSteps to enjoy some homemade ‘Curry with Love’ The meeting was intentionally informal with the aims of getting everyone acquainted with each other, The HRA and the proposed new charitable trust. Our guests shared experiences of Bangladesh and offered a lot of useful advice on positive ways forward for the HRA and ‘Friends of Nowder’. Cheltenham MP, Martin Horwood, a long time supporter of the project dropped in to confirm his backing of the project, it is hoped that he will agree to become the Patron of ‘Friends of Nowder’. Jerry and Sue Barr of Transition Cleeve who have both visited Bangladesh were very enthused by the project as were Professor Stephen Martin and his wife Maureen. Stephen and Maureen offered a lot of excellent advice and suggestions both in terms of what the project could achieve in Bangladesh and what needs to be done here in the UK to raise funding and profile. The meeting was also attended by Leo Guttridge, Mary Paterson, Dennis Mitchell, Nicola Oliver and Morgan Phillips from Global Footsteps who are all keen to be involved in the project.

The nucleus of a strong and experienced team seems to be evolving, arrangements are being made for a second meeting, this time in Broadway with James Powell when we hope to make further progress on the establishment of Friends of Nowder.

You can read more about The HRA FOUNDATION on our website

HRA Foundation / Curry With Love

Global Footsteps is partnered with a Bangladeshi Community Capacity building project called The HRA Foundation. It has recently run into difficulties, Global Footsteps director Morgan Phillips has written a report outlining the problems and is trying to raise awareness and support. This message is currently being sent out to journalists:

The HRA Foundation, a community capacity building project based in the Bishwanath sub-district of Sylhet, Bangladesh, has been forcefully and illegally closed down by powerful and self-interested local members of the ruling Awami League Political Party. The Awami League promised in its recent election manifesto, Vision 2021, that it is ‘committed to freeing Bangladesh from its current state of crisis and building a country whose citizens are able to live prosperous and happy lives.’1 The HRA Foundation was set up along very similar principles to the Vision 2021, it is supported by UK partners The Rendezvous Society (UK registered charity: 293357) and Martin Horwood MP (Cheltenham, Lib Dem). Its closure clearly contradicts Awami League promises and is an example of the political obstacles standing in the way of economic and social development in Bangladesh. Awami League public representatives with dual Bangladesh and British citizenship are implicated by their non action. They have thus far failed to attempt any arbitration and have willingly and very wrongfully painted the closure of the foundation as a simple family feud over property rights. The reasons for its initial closure were due to disagreements at a micro level, its continued closure highlights worrying truths about the Awami League at a macro level.

The HRA foundation was founded by Arosh Ali and is financed purely by the Curry With Love Bangladeshi takeaway and delivery service in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. I have uploaded a report outlining the origins and current situation of the HRA Foundation and Curry With Love to the Global Footsteps news page. Please read it here