We have recently started working with East London Mosque to target health inequalities and recruit people from a broader BME background and to enable a sustainable stop smoking project upon exit in three months time. The work started on the 11th May with two sessions for recruiting people in to the drop in sessions starting on the 24th May.
Our wonderful Public Health Advisor is responsible for finally being able to penetrate the ranks within the Mosque and pinning down a couple of people to support this new initiative. In our first meeting with the Mosque we had their full support and enthusiasm. They agreed to have an Imam trained in Level Two and enable staff to have access to basic Level One training also. The idea was to allow the the Imam to work shadow our project workers and then at the end of the pilot BSTP and the PCT will pass the project on to the Mosque to run.
We left the meeting with a feeling that the Mosque had another vision to our own and that the PCT already offered them something that could clash with the Imam taking the pilot project on board. There was no clear session or worker identified for female Mosque goers. And finally, my Manager predicted that the Imam would not attend the Level Two training.
Now….to date Dipul and I are supporting the 3 hour drop in sessions at the mosque with our Public Health colleagues. The Imam didn’t turn up for the Level Two Training and our sessions have been extended due to high demand. Now high demand due to the 76 people being intrested in the sessions.
We have have also had the advantage of using the CR-UK’s ‘Open up to Mouth Cancer’ screening mobile on the 31st May for WNTD to coincide with the sessions. The day proved to be a success and we have learnt a lot.
Working with the Mosque has been rather difficult at times as there are so many things going on and it is difficult to pin people down. When it comes to the crunch they are very helpful and the facility is very accessible.
I have noticed a pattern emerging with regards to accessing women and it was only over the 4 weeks of working at the mosque and asking questions did it confirm for me where and how to access the ladies.
According to one of three female link workers who share a full time post, women are only at the Mosque during funerals and weekends. So, now how do we approach women who are there for a funeral? Plus working over the weekend does not sound appealing over the next six weeks.
I plan to now raise awareness at the Sunday 11-1pm sessions and direct them towards the Thursday drop in sessions (Inshaallah!)
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