Utulivu Conference

UTULIVU CONFERENCE By Raveena Hargun

Utulivu Women’s Group held its annual conference on Sunday 10th July at the Hilton hotel Reading. Utulivu Women’s Group focuses on promoting health and wellbeing and positively integrating women into the wider community.

The conference also availed participants the opportunity to celebrate their achievements as individuals and in general as a community. Participant took the opportunity to discuss issues they face as a community in improving their wellbeing. The aim of the conference was to discuss and strategise with the members on issues affecting them. These issues include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), genderbased violence, support service provision among other promotional campaigns. In the area of FGM the group works towards not only ending the practice but providing support to FGM survivors on how to cope with the effects within their communities through counselling and signposting. Utulivu also partakes in the stride towards tackling gender-based violence by offering supporting and safeguarding services, awareness raising and training to tackle such acts of violence against women. The group also supports individuals and communities through one-to-one and community focused support with activities aimed at improving people’s mental health and wellbeing. On the other hand, Utulivu provides training on healthy family relationship, career progression, health, and wealth creation, raising awareness on the impact of drugs, alcohol, and knife crime among others. Some of the feedback received on the day included the need for men to be included in FGM dialogue so as to increase their level of participation and contribution. With such, the level of stigma, stereotype and victimisation will decline and would therefore add the level of confidence and support to survivors. Another feedback derived from the conference was to allow people talk about their culture and roots and embrace them. According to the participants, nurturing culture, heritage, and tradition will help children understand their roots and Identity. The conference also implored participants to promote the concept of volunteerism among the youth by visiting the community centre on Oxford Road. Creating a fanbased teen conference was among the deliberation so as to encourage and attract young people for more education on community - based participatory activities. Utulivu offers several other ways of counselling services through online where professionals address issues of domestic violence abuse within the BAME and the African diaspora community as well as signposting. The conference expressed the need to garner more funds to support refugees who are in dire need, and also to start a food bank in ACRE. The feedback was well received and was seen as a way forward for the centre to understand what the people want and how they will work towards providing their needs. Most of the participants expressed delight in the way the AGM was held.

MAYOR OF READING CELEBRATES IWD - #BreakTheBias - By Raveena Hargun

The Mayor of Reading Rachel Eden joined the Utulivu Women’s Group of Reading to celebrate International Women’s Day. Reflecting on the theme “Break the bias”, she posited that women face daunting challenges in their lives saying these biases just do not go away hence the need to fight them. Although she finds it very tiring to break these biases as a woman and Mayor, she said that she will not shy away from them. She noted the importance of her title saying, “it is a huge position and a privilege to take up such responsibility”. Mayor Rachel: “For the campaign #BreakTheBias” to be meaningful, there should be women in leadership that support each other because there is so much to fight for in our communities hence the importance of celebrating the day.” For her, she does not only see it but experiences it every day. She cited the example of being addressed as the ‘Mayoress’, which means the mayor’s wife — an unconscious bias in action. The Lord mayor encouraged the women of Reading to be tenacious in their fight against such biases. Despite the challenges she faces as a woman and Mayor, Rachel said that she is determined not to shy away from her title which is a huge position and privilege. She used the occasion to register her appreciation for the support she receives from the women of Reading. “We have a responsibility to support each other and help other women and we should be proud as women to celebrate this day and share stories with each other”, she noted. The mayor and her deputy expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to serve the people of Reading and assured them of their support. She encouraged more women to come forward and share their stories with each other and assured them of her unflinching support. Mayor Rachel is a great champion and advocate for health and wellbeing of women of Reading and their families. She is supportive to organisations that deal with sensitive matters such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Dying matters among others, hence her partnership with ACRE.