In this issue:
- Meet our team
- Moustafa Qureshi Tizon- Community Development Worker
- Mayssaa Shei Al Ard - Community Connector
- Connections Hui - Sharing Ideas to Create Thriving Environments for our Communities
- International Women's Day 2022 Breaking the Bias
- Fashion Fusion Show is back!
- Informing the Women's Employment Action Plan
- Young and New to Aotearoa? Join our Youth Programme
- Life Skill Classes for Term 2
- Volunteer With Us
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Kia ora koutou katoa! My name is Moustafa Qureshi Tizon. I am a community development worker. In my role, I promote healthy masculinity and community conversations about sexual and domestic violence prevention with men. My passion involves music, nutrition/health and fitness, learning new languages and cultures, and creative writing. These passions link to my hobbies, including playing musical instruments, bodyweight training, going to cultural club communities to learn new languages, and writing poetry.
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Mayssaa Sheik Al Ard was born to a Syrian father and Egyptian mother, married to an Iraqi husband, raised in the UAE, and living in NZ. Mayssa grew up in a very diverse environment, allowing her to understand other cultures.
In 2014, Mayssaa's life underwent a transformation, sparked after working with refugees in Jordan.
Her passion for supporting refugees continued after she settled in Hamilton in 2016. With the first Syrian refugee families arriving there, she established a weekend school to teach these children their mother tongue, Arabic.
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Connections! Hui, Sharing Ideas to Create Thriving Environments for our Communities
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More than 80 ethnic therapists and community workers met on Zoom on the 16th of March to talk about how to prevent and respond to sexual harm experienced by ethnic communities. The Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence, Hon. Marama Davidson opened the hui and posed some questions to us. We then broke into smaller groups and developed our responses to these questions. The responses were collated and will be written in an official report/letter to the Minister, so she can hear our thoughts about what needs to happen for our communities.
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Talking about sexual violence may be hard for many of us. But preventing sexual harm is about working out what creates safe and loving environments for our communities and enhancing those things, which is a much more comfortable conversation to have. We can create communities where sexual harm does not exist. We know that this will look different for each community, so it is essential that we all keep communicating.
This year because of the pandemic, we couldn’t do this conference as we wanted, enjoying the beautiful Wellington/Te Whanganui-a-Tara with everyone in Parliament. But it was important to continue the conversation that we started in 2019, so we decided to go ahead in a way that felt safe and inclusive for all. We are doing three shorter hui to ensure that none of us has to sit all day in front of Zoom, which can be exhausting. This could be an advantage, as the more often we see each other, the stronger the connections we will build.
There will be opportunities for different parts of our communities to come together and talk in the next two hui. We will continue to invite and hear the perspectives of people from different ethnicities, communities and genders. If you want to register for the next hui or keep informed about them, please email communications@shama.org.nz.
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International Women's Day 2022 Breaking the Bias
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International Women’s Day is usually a day the Shama tribe gets together. Staff, Trustees, volunteers, clients, participants, and friends come together to acknowledge and celebrate everything achieved by women throughout the centuries and reflect on what still needs to be changed to achieve equality.
The theme for 2022 is an “invitation to imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.”
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This year the pandemic has continued to disrupt our traditional get-togethers. While we prefer face-to-face events, with kai, hugs and dancing, the Zoom celebration was well received. The online world allows sharing of resources from different parts of the world. We got to have fun with interactive quizzes and have our philosophies challenged with amazing videos and local speakers.
Here we share some of the best videos:
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Informing the Women’s Employment Action Plan
Barriers and enablers for ethnic women
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The Ministry of Women worked on a Women’s Employment Action Plan during February and March. To make sure they were engaging with ethnic women across the country, they approached us to host 2 hui with Waikato ethnic women that could help identify the barriers and challenges when finding and securing employment.
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Some of the barriers identified by the participants are the language barrier, confidence, child care and lack of extended family to provide support, transport, cultural expectations, poor recognition of overseas qualifications, financial constraints.
Some of the major hurdles that ethnic women have experienced from potential employers are misconceptions about our abilities based on our culture, difficulties with ethnic names, a lack of acceptance of different ways of dressing, and the assumption that we will have a shortfall of knowledge of local culture.
Suggestions for the Women’s Employment Action Plan were
- To promote awareness of the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace,
- Provide training to mainstream employers and recruiters to clarify misconceptions about certain cultures,
- Start a migrant women platform to teach migrant women about New Zealand culture, inform us about what employers are looking for, and collaborate to build and spread awareness.
Some of the priorities identified were:
- Internships and meaningful volunteer opportunities to enable New Zealand work experience. To provide/support childcare and transport costs for volunteers to gain NZ work experience.
- Changes in government departments. Women and ethnic women as policymakers – the patriarchal system needs a more diverse perspective, capturing aspects from an ethnic women’s point of view.
- Make an easy and transparent system to recognise overseas academic qualifications and experience.
- Increase transparency in recruitment processes to ensure there is no discrimination (for names, for example
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Young and New to Aotearoa? Join our Youth Programme
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This month as covid cases spiked, we took this opportunity to connect online, check-in with each other and play Kahoot!
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We've got a fantastic range of fun things planned over the next couple of months, including a camp, a Fashion Fusion Show, and a Treaty of Waitangi workshop.
Shama's Ethnic Youth Programme is a space for young ethnic people to discuss their issues and needs. They are also supported to raise their voice to influence policy-making processes that affect their lives.
If you're interested in joining and between 12-24 years old, contact Madiha Ali on 022 582 4217 or the Shama office on 07 843 3810
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Life Skill Classes Term 1 2022
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The Fusion Fashion Show is back! Shama is bringing back the most glamorous ethnic event in Aotearoa on the 21st of May 2022.
We are gathering expressions of interest from the following:
- Ethnic Fashion designers
- People who own cultural clothing and outfits
- People who have unique wedding dresses that have cultural meaning
- Culturally Diverse models (we are looking for people of all cultures, ages and sizes)
- Makeup artists
- Audiovisual technicians
- Photographers
- Videographers
If you are interested or know someone suitable in your network, please contact us at info@shama.org.nz or click the link below
We're so excited to see this event grow with our communities.
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If you're great with kids and have a passion for working with others, this role is perfect for you!
Volunteers support the delivery of our School Holiday Programme, facilitating a variety of sporting, craft and recreational activities in a safe environment. The programme includes arts and crafts from around the world, sports, fun games and an outdoor trip.
Express interest in joining our volunteers programme by applying below, or contact us
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Are You OK? The New Website with Information on Family Violence
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For support and help, contact Are you ok? Including if you need to seek advice on ways to hold a safe discussion if you think someone you know is experiencing family violence. Professional support is there for those that need it when they’re ready.
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