Holy half-term holiday for Birmingham young people
27 February 2012

Young people across Birmingham had the chance to turn holidays into holy days as Muslims and Christians explored their faiths together through a series of workshops and events run by The Feast, a charity based in Sparkhill which aims to build friendships between teenagers of different faiths.

Events during the week-long break included a comedy course and a fashion show as well as a movie marathon that raised some £500 for The Feast.

The film-fest, which began on the 10th of February saw nine young people aged 12 to 17 watch 10 stories of Dr Who in 18 hours non-stop through the night. As well as watching one film starring each of the 10 Doctors, the team of fundraisers played games and took a break at 3 am to smash a tardis piñata.

Local comedian Barbara Nice helped young people from Aston and Newtown to get through half term in cracking form as they spent three days preparing for the Faithful and Funny comedy evening which was held at Broadway School on Wednesday February 15th. Barbara and the young performers were joined by comedian Shaista Aziz for the show which was brought local people together for free laughs.

Volunteer with The Feast, Hanna Warsame (20), ran a Fashion and Faith event in Sparkhill, which looked at how old or unused material can be transformed into modern clothing and accessories. During the event the six girls talked about how their faith influenced their fashion choices, their views on ethical fashion and where to draw the line between being modern and modest.

“It was much harder than I thought it would be,” said Hanna. “I never imagined there’d be so much to think about to run one event but Im glad I did it and Im happy with how it turned out!”

Hannah is now organising a Talent Show to help raise funds to send a group of young Christian and Muslim young people to Turkey, to teach other youth how to also discuss faith appropriately.

The week ended with a drama workshop led by Ulfah Arts and the Saltmine Trust during which nine young people learnt new skills and acted out stories from both the Christian and Muslim traditions. Organiser Jenny Creasy said, “Drama proved to be a great way for young people from different faiths to get together and the young people said they had got a lot out of the workshop. They  told us that it  helped them realise that its not too scary to talk about religion and built their confidence to perform in front of people they did not know.”
                               
Feast Project Manager, Tim Fawssett, said: “This has been a wonderful week in which young people have come together in so many different ways to build deep and trusting friendships with each other.

“It is great to see teenagers gaining the confidence to talk about their own faith and growing in understanding of another faith. These kinds of friendships, this honesty and openness and the levels of trust we see between young people of different faiths are really important not only for these individuals but for their faith communities and this city as a whole.”

To find out more about the Feast please visit www.thefeast.org.uk.

< Back to main