School/Directorate: Cardiff Met Sport
Key theme: Links directly to celebrating cultural diversity and inclusion at the University; Promoting integration between home and international students;
Impact and Achievements:
In order to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, on Saturday 22nd April, a festival was held at the Cardiff Met Archers Arena to coincide with the final Women’s Basketball (WBBL) home game of the season against Newcastle Eagles.
The festival offered up an opportunity to bring the Muslim community together with our staff, students, and the wider community. The aim was to celebrate cultural diversity and inclusion at the university and promote integration.
The funding helped to support the pre-game festival which involved fun activities, games, and competitions with prizes given out. Following the festival, participants were then provided with food and refreshments and a further opportunity to interact with those from the club. Participants were also given activities to complete educational material to teach them more about Eid. To finish the day, all of those were then able to meet the WBBL players and stay to watch the WBBL game. This gave a great opportunity for them to watch high level basketball and hopefully encourage them to return again in future.
In addition to this, in the lead up to the festival, a number of our casual coaches attended schools to promote the event and its purpose, providing tickets for young children and their families to join. The school visits included a mix of assemblies and delivery of coaching sessions.
A total of 51 individuals registered for the event with parents and children taken part alongside the junior and senior team players.
In relation to impact, whilst not all impact can be measured immediately the attendance and engagement from young people and their families was rewarding to see at the event. In addition to this, the number of primary school children that CardiffMet Sport were able to reach and speak to had a positive impact. A number of individuals who were not from the Muslim community also fed back how they had learned something new about Eid.
The initiative helped celebrate with the Muslim community and further demonstrate our commitment to inclusion, making everyone feel welcome and a sense of belonging within the club. In addition to the student community, the initiative will aim to bring more people on to campus to integrate with the student population. Furthermore, along with supporting those from the Muslim community, the initiative will also educate those that are not with regards to Ramadan and the celebration of Eid. This is an opportunity to bring people together including home and international students and the local community in order to educate, celebrate and shine a light on Muslim tradition.