Over 160 community members attended & participated in a celebration event organised by Gohar Almass Khan and his team from the South Leeds Community Alliance. This took place at the Hamara Centre in Beeston with help from the Community Development Foundation of which he is also involved with.
The attendees were entertained with a wide variety of music and dance from all over the globe, representing the wonderful diversity of the area.
Entertainment included Latvian dancing and singing led by Aija Pacevica which was a superb rendition of poetry and singing performed by all ages dressed in traditional Latvian clothing.
Indian classical Katthak dance, Indian Santoor and live tabla- haunting melodies on the tabla and Santoor, and Mark’s Magic Kingdom- where Mark cast his magic upon all and entertained brilliantly. He said of the evening “I’ve attended many events in my life but this event was an unforgettable one, so many people from different cultures united by Dance & Music under one roof.”
Following this was a Gatka and sword performance by the Khalsa Singh Brothers who put on an amazing display of skill and sport with daring sword skills of slicing fruits that had been precariously placed on the hand, neck and stomach of members of the audience including Gohar Almass Khan, Chinese lion (Judy Pease & team) with Hong Kong dragon dance and drumming which relayed the importance of the dragon within the Chinese culture & the good luck symbolism. Judy said “All the Chinese performers would love to come again to perform in Beeston, we really enjoyed tonight.”
All this entertainment was accompanied by great hospitality: a delicious, mouth- watering Pakistani and Indian buffet and drinks complemented by freshly made chocolate cream cake along with beautiful Latvian and Eastern European cuisine.
The evening was rounded off by a presentation of bouquets of flowers presented by the host Gohar Almass Khan & Aija Pacevica to the performers & organisers.
Councillor Iqbal was in attendance and said “What a true reflection of our diverse community, it was a great effort and a very successful event.”
The event had been organised to celebrate the end of a three year funding plan which had greatly benefitted local communities. The Community First fund from the Community Development Foundation had been set up to provide grants for various grass roots community groups to assist them with projects.
Any not for profit group could apply for funding and it made a massive difference in Beeston and the surrounding areas alone. Projects that had been helped by the CDF in this area included the Love Beeston – Clean Beeston campaign which was a huge success. The local community worked with Leeds City Council, the Police and other organisations to carry out litter picking sessions and a general clean up. Another project was the United Faces of Beeston in which a photographer captured images of over 60 local people of different race, culture and religion to create a visual display of the vast diversity of the area.
Gohar Almass Khan said “The CDF was a great idea and it would be wonderful if it continued. Everybody benefitted from it from the young to the old, sports, arts and drama groups to the restoration of old churches and other buildings. I arranged the celebration event to enable people of different communities to come together to eat, make new friends, and talk about what we had achieved and also to encourage more groups to do more. It was a great success.”
The CDF funding has now ended but community groups wanting more information and help with funding can visit the following websites:
www.healthforall.org.uk www.s-lca.co.uk
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