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By Taz Virdee A few days before Christmas we delivered festive hampers to 50 families in our local community. We focused on families and residents whom previously received our Covid-19 essential food parcels during the first lockdown and a few volunteers.
The Christmas hampers were kindly donated by Sapna Dhall and Mimi's Coffee and Dessert Lounge in Hounslow. We also prepared our own hampers supported by chef and author Manju Malhi.  Do you live, work, volunteer or study in the Heston West Big Local area? Would you like to win a Christmas meal with all the works for your family? The meal is cooked by TV chef and author Manju Malhi. If yes, please click here and we will be in touch if you are the winner.
One entry per household only. Terms and conditions apply. Closing date is Sunday 13th December at 12pm. Hounslow's Director of Public Health, Kelly O'Neill talks about the latest COVID-19 figures, the new Tier 2 restrictions and appeals to residents to play their part in taking personal responsibility for protecting their community.
By Taz Virdee ‘Together We Are Stars’ showcased last November to our local community in partnership with Bantu Arts. In our Ugandan inspired performance, we highlighted social concerns and issues surrounding online bullying, body image, Brexit and climate change. To celebrate Black History Month 2020, we finally been able to capture last year's journey and our story behind the performance and scenes of ‘Together We Are Stars’ with directors Steven Kasamba and Sharanjit Kaur. Watch the full ‘Together We Are Stars’ live performance below:
By Taz Virdee Before lockdown, there was our Big Local Family Cooking Club! In this video, chef Manju Malhi treats a few of our lucky participants to some of her new recipes in her latest book called Easy Indian Cookbook, containing over 70 delicious recipes for all to enjoy!
By Taz Virdee
Heston West is getting towards the end of its Big Local funding. We want to ensure we make best use of this and get your input on what we do next...
The survey is anonymous and important for us to help plan for the next few months and years ahead. The legacy survey (below) will take no longer than a minute to complete, so please do give us your feedback, it would help us greatly and it is very much appreciated. By Taz Virdee  After nearly six months of lockdown, we finally got together to run our Big Local Socially Distanced Community Clean Up Day on Saturday 26th September 2020. In partnership with Hounslow Highways and Keep Britain Tidy campaign, we collected over 25 bags of rubbish.
In total, we had 20 volunteers (including our local MP Seema Malhotra), 4 groups of 5, staggered throughout the morning and afternoon. The Clean Up was an opportunity to trial our new Covid-19 secure measures to ensure the health and wellbeing and safety of our volunteers and the public. After our successful trial on Saturday, we will look to run further Clean Up days and other outdoor community events in the near future. For more information about our upcoming Big Local events, please click here. We would like to thank our brilliant and amazing volunteers for their incredible dedication and support and our partners Hounslow Highways, Keep Britain Tidy and Cranford Community College.
By Taz Virdee  By Megha Dahdrai  Megha (centre, back row) alongside our Big Local youth volunteers receiving their legacy awards in Dec 2019. Hello! I’m Megha Dahdrai. I am currently studying English Literature at Royal Holloway; University of London and I have been a volunteer with Heston West Big Local since 2016. Over the years, I have taken part in planning and executing creative projects for various age groups. Being a dedicated member of the group led to me receiving a job offer as an art facilitator with Creative Spaces LDN. Recently I was given the opportunity to run a project online with my best friend, Juhi Kumra. We help run the summer school together every year and make a rather brilliant team. We decided to work together to create a stimulating twelve-week program, Juhi’s being drama-based and mine being art-based. Personally, during the lockdown, it has been impossible for me to find inspiration to create art – my hopes for this project are that it acts as a form of inspiration and a source of information for my participants.
To anybody considering volunteering – I think that it is both hugely rewarding and gratifying, I would urge you to give it a try. I have had wonderful experiences, met amazing new people and it has shaped me as a person.
For more information about the project please click here. |
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