The Equals IW Annual General Meeting for members or those wishing to become members will take place on 11th April 2012 at Newport Police Station

Programme

1700 hrs Registration

1730 Welcome by Chairperson

1735 Speaker Rex Bavington about Equals web site

Discussion and Tea

1800 Report from Chairperson

1805 Report from Treasurer

1810 Independent person to take over

Election of Committee members

Chair Person

Treasurer

Secretary

+ 5 (maximum 9) voting members

1830 End of Election

General discussion and date of committee meeting

1900 Thanks and End of AGM

48 hours notice will be given if the venue changes so please keep checking the web site.

Nomination forms for committee members will be available during registration.

The Equals constitution and membership form are on the web site.

Date: Tuesday 6 December 2011
Venue: Cowes Baptist Church
Admission: Free
Time: 15.00 - 17.30  St Nicholas arrives at 17.00

• Market stalls with home made goods and Isle of Wight products
• International hot and cold food and drink
• Nativity scene
• Story times, carol singing, tombola and raffle
• Face painting and crafting activities
• Second hand clothes sale

Please don't miss out on this fun-packed occasion.

Vidya Wolton

Diwali is one of the biggest Hindu festivals and for five days in India it is celebrated with great enthusiasm and happiness. 

Background

Diwali is associated with wealth and prosperity and the celebrations last for five days. The first day of Diwali is known as Dhanteras but the main celebrations occur on the third day called Amavasya which is the Indian name for the new moon.

Colourful fireworks are associated with the festival and people light up candles and small earthenware oil lamps called diyas around their houses. They perform Laxmi Puja in the evening and seek divine blessings of Lakshmi who is the goddess of wealth. Diwali is a great favourite with children due to the lights, fireworks and sweets that are involved,

Because houses, shops and public places are decorated with diyas, Diwali is also known as the 'festival of lights'. The lamps are traditionally fuelled by mustard oil and are placed in rows in windows, doors and outside buildings as a decoration. The lamps are lit to help the goddess Lakshmi find her way into people's homes. In India oil lamps are often floated across the river Ganges and it is regarded as a good omen if the lamp manages to get all the way across.

The name of the festival comes from the Sanskrit word dipavali, meaning row of lights. As a harvest festival and a celebration of the lunar new year, Diwali has strong astrological energies similar to other festivals the world over. The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance.

Read more: Equals Diwali Celebration

The Natwest CommunityForce Competition

Natwest have made a commitment to help their local communities as part of their customer charter. Their CommunityForce platform is a result of this commitment and aims to

• Raise awareness of local projects and the work of charities.
• With the support of NatWest and local communities make their plans a reality.

By applying to CommunityForce hundreds of local charities and projects stand to win an award of £6,000 each, with the winners decided by public vote in the autumn.

CommunityForce will also be providing their time and expertise and encourage local people to volunteer their talents to support the causes closest to their heart.

If you would like to support Equals Friendship Groups please vote for us. Voting opens on the 26th September 2011 and ends on 23rd October 2011. There are nearly 6000 charities and projects taking part so it's important that we get as many votes as we can. Help us by spreading the word to families and friends or by posting the voting link

http://communityforce.natwest.com/project/1633

on your facebook page, tweeting about it or by adding a link to your blog!

Thank you for your support.

Samantha Gilliam-Scott

Equals Friendship Group Co-ordinator

Tel:07554038716

Equals is one of three organisations being supported by the Waitrose Community Matters scheme run from their East Cowes branch for the month of September.

The Waitrose Community Matters scheme donates £1000 a month between three local causes chosen by the public.

When you have done your shopping you receive a token to place in the box of the good cause you'd most like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the bigger donation they recieve.

So, if you are doing your shopping at Waitrose East Cowes this month and would like to support Equals, please pop your token in our box.

Many thanks!

A formal inquiry is revealing that older people’s basic human rights are being overlooked in the provision of care at home.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have released emerging findings on their website.

The Cowes Friendship Group are interested in cake decorating, so a lovely lady called Dot was invited to the 13th July meeting to show them basic techniques.

Dot demonstrating cake decorating to the Equals Cowes Friendship Group

  Set 1/4  

She arrived armed with a big bowl of icing, greaseproof paper and empty upside down cake tins for practice. She set to work showing us how to make

• Piping bags from the greaseproof paper.
• How to cut different ends in the bags for different effects.
• Decorations such as scallops, shells, leaves and writing.

Dot also had books on cake decorating which she happily lent to members of the group to take home. The ladies were very pleased with their results and enjoyed the session.

One of the group members went straight home and made an anniversary cake using the techniques that Dot had taught. There are plans for Dot to come back in the future and teach decorations for Christmas cakes.

The ladies of the Friendship Group would like to express their thanks to Dot for the session she provided.

Sam

On the 22nd May 2011, the Cowes Friendship Group held a Cultural Diversity day for their family and friends.

There were stalls representing the different cultures within the group. The ladies also dressed in traditional costumes from their countries.

  Set 1/11  

Read more: Cultural Diversity Day

The Cowes Friendship Group held a tea party on Wednesday the 27th April 2011 to celebrate the Royal wedding.

The ladies of the group wanted to celebrate this wondrous British event and an English tea party seemed the only way to go. We set the hall up like a street party with long bench tables decorated with red and white napkins with Union Jack tablecloths and bunting everywhere.

  Set 1/2  

The ladies brought traditional English high tea food such as

• Cucumber sandwiches, with the crusts cut off of course
• Scones, cream and jam
• Sponge cakes
• Fairy cakes.

We had cake stands, doilies, cups and saucers, teapots and sugar cubes to embrace the British tradition.

The women dressed in their finest clothes and everyone wore beautiful wedding hats. They looked amazing enough to attend the actual wedding. We raised our teacups in a toast to the Royal couple before sitting down to enjoy our high tea. The atmosphere was wonderful and everybody enjoyed the celebrations.

On Wednesday the 23rd March 2011 members and volunteers from the friendship groups travelled to Winchester for an awards evening. The Equals Friendship Groups project was awarded third place in the South East Community Empowerment Awards.

Niviera, who is a friendship group member, collected our award, certificate and a cheque for £150 for our project.

Left to right: Juliet Davies, Sam Gilliam-Scott, Lisa Paul, Aquila Read, Jane Mckean, Niviera Piper

The award evening was organised by Community Action Hampshire on behalf of the South East Regional Empowerment Partnership. Comments from the judges were

• Good engagement of black, minority and ethnic (BME) women
• Achieving empowerment and influence and supporting cohesion
• Great project hope it continues to go from strength to strength
• Shows community and local goverment working together
• Communities have increased level of influence over decisions
• Community is stronger
• Project has real impact on community

Organisations from the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton and Hampshire entered into this award so we feel extremely proud for achieving third place.

Food and drink were provided after the ceremony and there was the opportunity to network with worthy groups who won other awards. The  evening was a wonderful night and a chance to celebrate and recognise all the hard work and commitment from the friendship group members and volunteers.