The Woh Zamana project will engage severely disabled young people with complex needs and disabilities and their young carers from BME communities to investigate their cultural heritage. By exploring and researching their families and communities from the 1950s to the 1980s the project will help them to see what shaped their identities and understand and appreciate their roots.

These young people will learn to investigate record and preserve history orally, digitally and through other inclusive mediums to make an accessible archive that will inform future generations. This will allow a platform for disabled young adults to engage with heritage that is relevant to them and brings value to their unique experiences and allows them to positively engage with their identity.

Alisha, a young Carer aged 14, explains: “Woh Zamana: means back in the day, we chose this name because we were very much interested in how our parents and their parents lived when they were our age. We want to know what shapes our identities… you know our roots there important. We are all excited about the HLF funding; it means we can go on this journey and learn lots of skills that will help us later.”

The project will allow positive family and community relationships as young people engage and value their cultural heritage and interact and value those who will support them with this.

Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “It is so important for young people to learn about their past and understand where they have come from. Woh Zamana will help young people develop a host of new skills, boost their confidence and build their relationship with the wider community. We are pleased to support these passionate and enthusiastic young people as they explore and share their heritage.”

Nadia, a user to the Centre, feels that the project will help change perceptions of young people with disabilities in the BME community as they positively interact with the community through the lens of their heritage and roots.

Leeds City Council Libraries who will be working in partnership with Haqooq will be supporting the Charity with their research and investigation and helping with resources, which will be invaluable support to the young carers and disabled young people with complex needs from BME communities. The young people on the project will learn to preserve their heritage investigation by documenting their work and presenting this using IT and other interactive technologies. In addition to learning how to use IT technologies,  The project ‘Woh Zamana will help support the facilitation of skills in interviewing, communicating and positively interacting with people in the community  to collect information bearing in mind the severe disabilities of the young people. They will learn to real life transferrable skills that will help empower them to become more independent and confident of themselves.

Further information

Shaheen Akhtar at Haqooq Aspire for More website 

Haqooq Facebook