September 2020 at Leicestershire Cares we are still in partial Lockdown so again we have been creative in trying to keep our participants engaged.
Since Quarantine Cooks was successful, we decided to come up with another cooking programme called ‘FAKEAWAYS’ where we cook all our favourite takeaway dishes for under ten pounds.
We will be teaching our participants how to budget, cook and create flavour in their food with a professional chef. We buy all the ingredients and get them delivered to their door to enable everyone a chance to experience the sessions.
The Making Moves Project is currently working with Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers and Refugees aged 16-25, and to reach out to the BAME Community within Leicester. We are working with some boys who attend a youth club specifically for Asylum Seekers and Refugees called the ‘Freedom Group’. This has been great, as the project has been supporting these boys with housing issues, getting them to explore different activities, opportunities and to integrate into society. We have already signed 8 boys up for the 10-week programme at Leicester Soccer Academy with LCFC - ‘changing lives through football.’
Where we came from, we love football and sports so to have this opportunity to play and learn with professional coaches has been a life changing experience for us.
We have also delivered a cooking session at the youth club with one of the participants cooking a traditional Afghanistan Chicken Curry and Chickpea Rice.
Thank you for this moment, I have not cooked properly since the first lockdown, I was so happy to share my traditional cooking with other people and the best part about it is they all loved it!
Muay Thai Boxing
We wanted to give the boys an opportunity to get fit, exercise, tackle isolation, loneliness and learn new valuable skills. A professional Pro Muay Thai champion kindly offered his teachings to the boys along with his knowledge and experience. It was such a hit that the project has now implemented this training once a week for them. After training we went to Istanbul restaurant for a well-deserved treat.
This was the best day I have had in such a long time.
Thank you, I was so happy today and I felt like myself again.
I can’t thank the project enough for making me feel part of a community.
I don’t feel so lonely anymore.
We took the boys to an allotment in New Parks and we were shown how to cook outdoors with the fresh vegetables they grow, a little bit of wood carving and chopping down trees to make a fire.
This reminded me of being back home and it made me smile.
My favourite part about today was the cooking, the company and wood chopping.
I had such fun and I never knew about allotments and how they grow their own fruit and vegetables.
We also make sure home starter packs and a kindly donated TV was given to make some of our participants life a little easier and more bearable in the hostel accommodations most of them are living in.
Nobody ever wants to escape their country and homes, but sometimes life is changed that you don’t want to happen.
If you require any information about the project or to support what we do please contact:
Neetu Squire
neetu@leicestershirecares.co.uk
Mobile No: 07834181041