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Ethnic Day Care Clubs in Hemel Hempstead

Ethnic Day Care

In 1988 Sudha Bramhbhatt and the late Mrs Margaret Turk of Dacorum Multicultural Association along with Dune Street from Dacorum Council for Voluntary Services identified a need for Ethnic Day Care provision within Dacorum for people who had settled in this country from Uganda and other African countries. This was gained from anecdotal evidence through chatting with various members of the ethnic community as well as their respective organisations and other public service organisations. At that time Age Concern Dacorum was newly established and a role was created within the organisation to start up and manage Ethnic Day Care provision.

Cinnamon Club

I was approached to join their team to plan the organisation of two clubs within the local area. I started with the Cinnamon Club which met on a Thursday afternoon for two hours at Grove Hill Church. To start with, Sue Bolton from Age Concern Dacorum (who was also organising 6 other clubs for local older people) and I provided transport ourselves, giving lifts to the clients to and from the club. I organised tea and coffee for refreshments but gradually the clients brought snacks to share as well. The club gave social interaction for the clients where they chatted and played games together. Some of the clients lived alone but even those not alone were often unable to get out of their homes to interact with their peers. One of the clubs' main aims was to combat isolation which was often felt among the members. Within a few weeks of starting, I found a volunteer driver and we hired a bus from Community Wheels. By this time there were 10-12 people coming to the club.

Cooking

The following year Dacorum Borough Council provided us space at the Highfield Community Centre which included a fully equipped kitchen. Some of our members offered to cook for the club including the late Savitaben Patel, Jayaben Odedra and Lakshmiben Patel, these ladies gave me great encouragement to start the cooking for the club. I used to take these ladies shopping for the club and they did lovely cooking which everyone enjoyed very much. We attracted lots of visitors who came for the food! Social Services staff often visited as the clients often did not access services available to them and this was a way of encouraging them to do so. At this time, I also organised speaker on various subjects such as members of the Social Services team and members of the nursing team who would encourage members to make use of the social -Services team and members of the nursing team who would encourage members to make use of the services provided. I also did a lot of visiting in the local area identifying the needs of the community, encouraging them to come to the club and to make use of local social services. This included a lot of translating for the clients to enable them to make use of these services. It included information about benefits, hospital and doctor's appointments and anything else that they needed translating. Other ladies came as clients, but they were also helpers, I was grateful to Hansaben Patel, Shantaben Patel, Madhuben Dave and Jasuben Morjaria. They all helped with the cooking because by this time we had around 20 people coming to the club along with many visitors. At this time the club had extended to four hours each week. After some time, the burden of cooking all the food became too much for the ladies and we applied to the County Council for funding for a cook and helper who would do this for the club. We were successful and employed a cook Bhanuben Pattni, for 10 hours a week, a manager Chandubhai Pattni for 17 hours to run both the clubs and a helper for 5 hours.