Dadihiye is pleased to have done very well in helping our community from different backgrounds to achieve great improvements in many areas of their lives such education and knowledge of Health services.
Our activities make differences to those in need and also hard to reach that benefited our free drop in services. Our community has and continues to suffer from the COVID-19 Pandemic and we have unfortunately lost a lot of our Somali Community members to this virus. Dadihiye has been available to the community to provide supports on many fronts, such as, emotional, psychological and ensured that the community was aware of evidence based facts surrounding the pandemic.
Unfortunately, due to a large number of mis-information campaigns and conspiracy theories, many of our community members were not getting the correct information surrounding the pandemic. We are proud to have been and continue to be a source of correct information for our community members.
Due to the pandemic we, and many other communities, were forced to close our doors to the many activities we had planned. We were also forced to take many of our proposed activities and events online through ZOOM.
We work according to the lockdown rules and restrictions of the government and will start to proceed with our activities gradually as restrictions permit. This includes our organised community events, Health Workshops, coffee mornings for women and children’s project holidays and outings. Our sewing class were many women socialise. Also, many of them benefits the befriending programme, where many single parents and elder women comes to our Tuesday coffee mornings to socialize and create friends.
Dadihiye continues projects and activities that are Important and interesting to the community and always come up with new and innovative ways to support the community such as the coffee morning sessions, taking into account the opinions and needs of our clients. Although, we are small organization still struggling with funding, we reach our targets, have been met and exceeded successfully beyond, as our services are known many years by the community. With all of our projects, we have expanded our services and improved the lives of many members of the local community.
Throughout the year, the Drop-In Support services were very busy as this is the first call for service users and its use rose exponentially each year. Answering clients’ queries or sign posting and advocate for them with the Ward Councilors support, and refer clients to seek specialists’ advice and legal services, was one of the key issue.
Generally, the main problem for the BME community is Housing and overcrowding, which continues to be our key area of support need. Many clients living in the South of the borough complains overcrowding as six people including teenage boys and girls sharing rooms living together in 2 bedroom flats, and some with small children in studio flat, this is to do with the inadequacy of home in the borough. The Housing repair, complaints of damp, water leaking, poor condition are other issue in which clients come for support with their Landlords. Dadihiye also supports those about to lose their homes due to excessive arrears and overpayment of housing and council Tax, to assist them with payment plans. Furthermore,, Health and Benefits’ enquires are still other key issues. Utility bills such as Gas, Electricity and water payments are big issues and burden with those low income people. Debt that mainly occurs from utility bills is higher costs specially in winter, and those disabled with electric wheelchairs or orthopedic beds users, as most are in financial hardship.
These disadvantaged clients would have been suffer farther, had Dadihiye not acted to support them on their requests or signpost to access further help to professionals.. Our Services have made a great difference to the lives of many people that we will continue to help people for the coming years.
Dadihiye is maintaining a high profile in the community. It attracts not only those in need of immediate help but also those who are hard to reach members of the community, looking for long term solutions to their problems. The Somali community and Other BMER backgrounds have a high level of unemployment and Dadihiye provides references that helped to obtains jobs at care homes as paid carers, also the Volunteering Programme has provided a space where volunteers have gained experience, valuable skills and self confidence in a professional organization and as a result some have gained employment or gone onto access higher education or take up a voluntary position in another organizations.
It is well documented that North Kensington is very much a deprived area of Kensington and Chelsea. A high proportion of Somalis and other MBE groups continue to live in the North of the borough, particularly in Golborne, Colvile. Notting Dale, Dalgarno and St Helen’s areas, where the deprivation impacts on Somali Community and other BME particularly first generations with no or little education, poor health, unemployed that they also some face social isolations and in turn this could affect their children. Therefore, it is vital that Dadihiye continues to do its good work and will do that with selflessness and hope that next year we will serve our community in an even greater capacity.
The demographics are still in the main RBKC residents with Hammersmith and Fulham and few from Westminster residents increasingly accessing to our services. Dadihiye is a growing service with many numbers of clients demanding our help and support in limited office space, small funding and understaffed workers. With in this environment, Dadihiye is happy to continue to provide its needed services to support to the disadvantaged, most depraved, low in and members of the community and those with vulnerable children. The majority of clientele are women and this continues to grow. Single mothers, separated or single older people are still the main make up of the group.
Dadihiye activities depend mainly on volunteers that works hard to assist clients in whatever area they need help. It is a small team that works many hours of devotion over and above their working hours committed to help clients and have been devoted to the continuation of Dadihiye service provision to continue to support clients in high need Whether it is filling application forms to for small domestic grants or seeking admission to a college or community course the staff always step up to the mark. I continue to be immensely very proud of our workers that are doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances, particularly those support the sewing class combined with English Conversations and coffee mornings and monthly health or hate crime, parents role workshops that successfully works to the demand of those faced isolation
Without our clients displaying their satisfaction via feedback both verbal and in written, our organization could not exists longer without our valuable service users. So many thanks for their vital support, their input and good wishes towards our organization. They have helped to make Dadihiye the success of this year.
Dadihiye thanks to the Golborne Ward Councilors that abandly enabled the continuation of sewing class needed badly by the women group that face social isolations, and also to Trust for London and Awards For All that without their major contribution Dadihiye Service provision would not be possible. We further acknowledgethe contributions of CASH, KCSC, Age UK, Supplementary School’s Partnership, etc. Once again thanks to all individuals and organizations for their support that also has enabled Dadihiye to continue to help our much needed services users.
Dahabo Isse
Chief Executive Officer