Express & Star

Faith in Action brings people together in Walsall

Walsall’s diversity and culture was on full display at a special community event.

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Liam Dacre-Davis, Yassar Taj, Colin Townsend, Gurpreet Sidhu, Gilbert David and John Edlin at the Faith in Action Showcase at Walsall Town Hall

Walsall Town Hall was the venue for the Faith in Action Showcase 2019, a communal event which aims to demonstrate the differences that people of different faiths make in Walsall.

The event was organised by Walsall for All, a long-term strategy by Walsall Council for creating strong and integrated communities in the town.

Marianna Solodcaia, community cohesion and engagement officer for Walsall Council, helped to promote and run the event and felt the day had been a success.

She said: “I think the day has gone really well. We’ve had attendees from different faiths and backgrounds, schools and community members and we’ve had great feedback from everyone.

“Everyone who attended is happy at how the day went and, most importantly, I could see the different faith groups interacting with each other, asking for contact details for future projects, which I think is amazing.”

The event on Wednesday last week saw representatives of organisations from around the town and the surrounding area such as Walsall Against Single Use Plastic (WASUP), Sikh Art, Signs for Worship Walsall and the As-Suffa Outreach set up stalls, with those in attendance able to learn about what the different groups were doing in the community and network with others.

The event also included speeches from WASUP founder Rashid Gatrad and Walsall Councillor Aftab Nawaz and a number of special performances on the stage of hall, with Colin Townsend from Signs for Worship Walsall performing the songs “Amazing Grace” and “Imagine” in sign language as well as a choir performance and a demonstration of Sikh martial art Gatka.

Mr Townsend said: “It’s great, because it brings British Sign Language and deafness into an equal footing with all these other groups, who are doing some amazing work.”

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