SANGINI's Activities

The following describes Sangini’s past and current projects:

Mirror without Reflection – (2007) involving young women from Black and Minority Ethnic backgrounds participated in creative workshops including creative writing, song-writing, singing and film making to create a piece of film exploring their experiences of self-harm.  The following quote demonstrates the impact this project had on one of the women involved:
“I’ve found it really interesting and I’ve loved it.  It was really good making up songs and it was nice to know that other people feel the same as well, and I learnt quite a bit and found it entertaining” 

Srijoni Women’s Group – an art group for Bangladeshi women living in the Millfield area of Sunderland who have expressed an interest in engaging in regular arts activities.  This project aims to respond to an identified community need and provide appropriate measures to sustain the work through training and community development. A group of 7 women worked with local artists Josephine Tagget and Midori Shinmura over a 3 month period and participated in a range of arts activities including, Jewellery workshops at the National Glass Centre plus designing and creating a mosaic wall plaque of Diamond Hall Infant School Logo.  The project itself created an opportunity for the women to develop textile skills and exhibit their work to an open audience at Diamond Hall Infant School, the wellbeing aims of the project succeeded in increasing confidence, reduce sense of isolation.
Following on from the initial project the women have recently been invited to participate in series of Workshops being held at the National Glass Centre and to work with International artist Chila Burman.  Some of their work will be exhibited at The Friendship Festival in July at which Sangini will be present.

Sunderland Festival of Lights Sangini celebrates the Hindu festival of Diwali by providing high quality, inclusive, multicultural arts experiences for communities from different cultures and social backgrounds, through participatory workshops and events, such as Chinese lantern workshops. This project provides opportunities for high quality, culturally diverse arts experiences to the residents of Sunderland, to raise awareness and to contribute to community cohesion by sharing and celebrating the multi-cultural traditions that are present in the North East with local communities.

International Women’s Day - is the global day connecting all women around the world and inspiring them to achieve their full potential.  The day also promotes the event around the positive achievements of women and the strength women bring to each other and to the rest of the community. It is celebrated in March each year.  This year Sangini were involved in two celebrations working alongside many community organisations such Wearside Women in Need, Age Concern & YMCA as well as The Coalfield Forum, Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust and Sunderland City Council teams including Culture & Tourism, Diversity and Inclusion. Participation workshops included mini health checks, yoga, Bollywood dance taster session plus the design and creation of a celebratory banner. 

Apki Sehat (meaning your health) – is a project targeted towards Black Minority Ethnic women living in the North and South areas of Sunderland who have expressed an interest in learning more about engaging in physical activities to improve their well being and requested support towards developing participatory activities.  After a sustained effort towards building relationship with the women from the Sikh community, the group, now known as Ektha, has identified specific issues around well-being.  As well as women from the Sikh community, women from the Bangladeshi community and Refugee and Asylum seekers have expressed an interest in participating in health related exercise; this will encourage integration and inclusiveness across different BME communities. The key elements of the project are participation, awareness raising, empowerment and integration.  The project activities are, walking and swimming, gym, swimming and keep-fit session.

Registered Charity number 1124769