As a community organiser, my job role is to listen to local
residents and support them, addressing their concerns in the community.
A significant number of ladies wanted to learn how to cook
healthy meals for themselves and their families. Therefore, in January 2015, I
ran a Healthy Cooking on a budget course for six weeks. The course was funded by
Lifelong Learning (Sheffield City Council). 12 ladies enrolled and we had
excellent attendance each week. The women were taught about cooking healthy food on a
low income. The courses were very practical and hands on. Upon completion, the
course was reviewed and the result of the evaluation was positive. Ladies had
begun to make many positive changes and healthy choices and by the end of this course I had a waiting list of more ladies
wanting to do a Healthy Eating course.
In April this year another six week course was organised
(Healthy Indian Cooking). 19 ladies enrolled. This course
is aimed to look at cooking South Asian cuisine in a healthy way, doing food
swaps and creating healthier portion sizes.
A local businessman, who owns Iqbal and Sons greengrocers in Tinsley, approached me to find out about the cooking
courses. He had heard about them through word of mouth from his customers. He
was very impressed and told me: "I have many local women among my customers. In the last year I have noticed a shift in what they are buying and I've
noticed how they are swapping to more healthy food. During my
conversation with customers, I've heard about the Healthy Eating courses
organised by Zahira. I myself am very aware of healthy eating and a healthy
lifestyle because I suffered from a stroke in my twenties and we have a family history
of heart disease and diabetes. Therefore, I feel it's important to teach local
people how to cook healthily and encourage a healthy lifestyle, especially with Pakistani food. This is why I'm happy and will feel privileged to sponsor the next
healthy eating course in Tinsley.”
Zahira Naz, Community Organiser
(T 0114 249 0099 or send us an email zahira@darnall.org.uk)
3 comments:
Will you be running a similar course for English and other nationalities?
We can run a course for healthy ways of preparing English traditional recipes if we get enough people who would like to attend (usually ten) but unfortunately we are only funded to run courses during the daytime.
Would you advertise outside of the Post Office/Darnall Forum to gain interest in such a course? I can always help with raising awareness for such a course in social media etc.
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