It was with a heavy heart that Asha bowed to the inevitable and closed except for two hours a day on two days a week. This is so the 100+ men, women and families who call each week for food can continue to do so. At present Asha has not been able to buy-in supplies

Women, men and children from across the world came together to celebrate International Women’s Day at an event hosted by Asha. The women enjoyed relaxation workshops, yoga, hand massages and henna hand-painting, while children decorated a plant-pot, designed a kite and drew pictures of inspirational women in their lives at the RVS in Hanley. Guest

Introduced and facilitated by Godefroid, fifteen Asha users divided into two groups and were asked to identify acceptable and unacceptable behaviour ‘back home’ contrast this with what may be acceptable or unacceptable here in the UK.  Alcohol and drunkenness, sexual consent, rape, grooming and touching as well as sexual identity and trans gender issues were

Trinity Church Leek has long been a supporter of Asha and was delighted to invite our African drummer friends to contribute to a concert in aid of Act21, a local charity which provides services for young people in the area. Their playing and singing was enthusiastically received and resulted in an impromptu session with one

Keele Language Centre, in conjunction with ASHA North Staffordshire, successfully hosted an ESOL training event on Thursday 20 February 2020 led by John Sutter, Director of Learning Unlimited (specialist in ESOL/ELT and Literacy Education) and funded by the Education and Training Foundation. The event was well attended with representation from a majority of the local ESOL

For several years, Asha has welcomed four second year medical students on a  community placement for a minimum of 22 hours.  Starting with an induction about Asha’s services, policies and procedures the students meet with newcomers to our country and to Stoke and hear something of what they have endured to get here.  This year

Twenty-two children and eight parents strapped on roller skates and got in touch with their inner child during the half term break. There were a few trips and falls, no broken bones and a lot of laughter as Asha children and parents had their very first Roller Disco at the YMCA in Hanley. Many had

Women from Asha joined in a kitchen party to decorate biscuits for Valentine’s Day and make these lovely gift boxes. We celebrated together the importance of companionship and support for each other, and gave out our gifts to others in order to spread the love. At Asha’s Friday community meal, men and women wrote love

(Men predominate in the English classes and this sidesteps learning around those things likely to matter most to women, hence a ‘women only’ group to be tutored by a young Muslim mother!)  The tutor began with two women from Sudan and one from Morocco. Reporting on her first session, she commented “The students seemed very