Weekly Column: Mayor Mohammed Zaman
Date published: 08 March 2019
Mayor Mohammed Zaman at Richmond Hall for the Hope for Disabled Children charity fundraiser
Today is International Women’s Day (Friday 8 March) which this year focuses on a balanced world for a better world. I want to encourage everyone to appreciate and think of women’s achievements today and to always celebrate women who achieve all around the world.
Mayoress Naaira Zaman commented on International Women's Day: "Celebrating women’s achievement is not exclusive to one day; all year round we have wonderful women who contribute so much to our society, but it is nice that there is a specific day marked internationally for women.
"As Mayoress of Rochdale, I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful women and learn about their struggles but also their achievements in all walks of life.
"These women have inspired me and I feel in Rochdale we have a strong sense of community spirit which recognises and support’s women."
This week it was also World Book Day (Thursday 7 March), an annual event to promote reading, publishing and copyright. There are many gadgets and technological devices used in modern day, and I would like to urge people to retain traditional methods of reading through buying books, whether this be in schools for learning or at home for leisure.
There is no end to learning. Books take you on a real journey, I love reading them.
I want to take this opportunity to highlight that my Mayor’s Charity Ball is being hosted at Rochdale Town Hall on Friday 12 April, 6.30pm onwards. I am seeking support from local businesses and organisations who would be willing to donate raffle prizes and help me raise funds for my six local charities: Petrus, Springhill Hospice, British Heart Foundation, Moorend Trust, Rochdale Community Partnership and Parkinsons UK.
More details about the ball can be found here:
Week commencing Monday 25 February – Sunday 3 March
Monday, I had a meeting with Rochdale’s Pakeeza Women’s Group. This is a self-help group of ladies who meet on a weekly basis to reduce one another’s isolation, help and support each other.
The Pakeeza Women have been supporting me throughout my mayoral year so far and have raised a remarkable amount for the Mayor’s Charity Appeal through various events and collections. Thank you to the chairperson of the group, Razia Shamim MBE, and her volunteers who always put back into the community and help others.
Evening, I attended a charity fundraising dinner at Richmond Hall for Hope for Disabled Children (HFDC). Organised by IQRA International who aim to work towards a more caring world, the charity tries to make a difference by helping the poorest and vulnerable, disabled people and widows around the world. They host an annual event in different towns and cities each year; this year it was hosted in Rochdale.
A presentation was shown of the work IQRA have done with lots of individuals and how they raise the money to achieve this difference. Thank you to Mushahid Hussain for inviting me.
Tuesday, I was invited to Rochdale Sixth Form College for a showcase of Rochdale’s LGBT+ youth group called ‘InsideOut’. This group is for young people aged 13-25 years old who identify as LGBT+ or are questioning their gender or sexuality.
The InsideOut showcase happened during LGBT+ History month and I was glad to see such events happening in Rochdale to celebrate this. Performances were showcased by the members of the group, as well as poetry, singing, activities on tables and speeches were made about the journeys these people had taken to identify as LGBT+ and some difficult times they faced.
I was glad to see that the young members of the group felt like they had a voice and that they had a choice when all together and could develop secure connections on a platform where they can express themselves equally.
Rochdale Council’s Community Safety Team were also in attendance, as well as councillors Janet Emsley and Sara Rowbotham. We spoke to those involved with the group and I am proud of the work they are doing in Rochdale.
Wednesday, Rochdale Borough Council had a full council budget meeting. We discussed a range of prevalent topics in the borough.
Thursday, I officially opened the new Lidl store in Littleborough. 40 new jobs have been created with the opening of the business on Stockton Street, which features an instore bakery, customer toilets with baby changing and ample parking for both cars and bicycles. The Lidl management team from Sheffield were also there on the day and were really happy with the location and facilities of this new store.
I led the ribbon cutting with pupils from St Marys Primary School, before members of the community joined to watch the children sing and have a tour of the new store. I was shown the storage area and was informed about how the store is environmentally friendly with regular recycling schemes to reduce waste.
It is always great to welcome new businesses to our area who recruit local people and develop opportunities. I was really pleased to be there and want to thank Laura Pinder and Beth Clark for inviting me.
I had a meeting with Lucy Geddes from Salford who runs workshops based on art and performance to help people with dementia and raise awareness of it. She runs a regular community programme at Manchester Camerata Orchestra, where she organises music and theatre projects about living with young onset dementia.
She is hoping to bring her group and workshops to Rochdale, so this is what we discussed, and I got her in touch with the relevant contacts. Thank you to Lucy for raising more awareness on dementia and how it can affect anyone at any time.
Friday, the governor of Buckley Hall, Rob Knight, was welcomed to Rochdale Town Hall as part of a networking event to connect him with local agencies who could provide him with new projects for the prison facility. His colleague, deputy governor Jayne Kirkpatrick, representatives of Greater Manchester Police and council leader Allen Brett also attended.
Attendees had the opportunity to take part in Q&A sessions, which raised awareness on the prison in Rochdale and a good discussion was had by all about new initiatives to take on board. Rob was also given a tour of the town hall – he had never visited before and was very impressed by the building.
Thank you to all who joined us at this event.
I was invited to All Saints & Martyrs Church in Middleton with my daughter, Mayoress Naaira Zaman, for a Women’s World Day of Peace and Prayer event. The programme for the day was compiled by a Slovenian woman and included stories about women who had a difficult time specifically after the World Wars. The whole message was that faith is strong and kept these ladies together… your prayers will always be answered if you have patience.
Beautiful hymns were sung, and we were offered refreshments. I have never visited All Saints & Martyrs church before, but I was amazed by the interior and design of the building.
Thank you to Muriel O’Neil who invited us and to everyone who organised the event. I really enjoyed being here and how we said prayers for the whole of the world.
Friday evening, I, Naaira and Mayor’s Consort, Mohammed Sheraz, were invited to the Mayor of Oldham’s Charity Ball at Queen Elizabeth Hall.
The whole evening was entertaining, but my favourite part of the night was when the mayor walked in with drummers and dancers to Bollywood music. The night was fun with comedians and singers at the huge gathering. It’s always nice to see mayors from other towns and their friends.
Congratulations to the Mayor of Oldham who raised an excellent sum for his charities. I hope to do the same at my Mayor’s Charity Ball at Rochdale Town Hall on Friday 12 April.
Saturday was the night of the annual Mayoress at Home event, hosted by councillor Janet Emsley who kindly agreed to manage the stage for the night. This was another amazing evening of entertainment.
This year, Naaira chose the theme of International Women’s Week to highlight the achievements of women at local, national and international level with some amazing women attending. Sue Devaney was the main speaker who made everyone laugh and cry, The High Sherriff of Greater Manchester Dr Robina Shah also spoke about her journey to becoming High Sherriff, a group of Bollywood dancers performed, and we raised money for the Mayor’s Charity Appeal through a game of stand-up bingo and a raffle.
Naaira worked very hard for this event, even though she has her full-time job, so I want to say a big congratulations to her. A big thank you from the mayoress goes to the mayoralty team who always lend a lot of time and support to make events successful for a great cause.
I visited local businesses in the run up to this event to ask for their support and if places would be willing to donate prizes for the big raffle draw. ChaCha Jewellers was one of the local businesses who supported us by donating four different pieces of beautiful white gold jewellery. Thank you to them and to all the other businesses that supported the night.
Sunday, I visited all of the mosques in Rochdale with Rochdale’s MP Tony Lloyd, and Leader of the Council Allen Brett, plus other local councillors and congregational members from various churches such as Reverend Mark Coleman.
We visited the mosques as part of the national initiative #VisitMyMosque campaign, where mosques around the UK open their doors to the public – of faith or no faith – to explore the vicinity of a mosque and the faith of Islam.
We attended Bilal Mosque (in Rochdale’s central ward), Golden Mosque (Spotland), Madina Mosque (Kingsway) and Blue Mosque (Milkstone and Deeplish). Each one we attended had a very good turnout of people interested in the initiative, asking questions and taking informative leaflets. I personally feel events like this are good to build bridges to bring our communities closer together.
Thank you to Rochdale Council of Mosques for organising the day and thank you to everyone who made the effort to attend and learn more about the faith of Islam.
Mayoral Invitations
The Mayor welcomes invitations to events held by local organisations and individuals. Due to demand, it may not be possible for the Mayor to attend every event he is invited to.
To invite the Mayor to your event please complete the Mayor attendance form and return it to the Mayor's Officer.
Visit: www.rochdale.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/mayors/Pages/mayoral-invitations.aspx
Email: mayoral@rochdale.gov.uk
Tel: 01706 924773
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