‘’We want a place where Christians and Muslims can work together without hesitation, like at The Feast’’ –Bilal, Y4M, Moseley School.
I’m Lizzie, I’m 16 and I’ve been doing work experience with The Feast for the past week. I’ve had access to what goes on behind the scences and have been finding out about what other young people think of The Feast and about how it’s affected their lives.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had the chance to go to the after-school clubs at Moseley and Golden Hillock schools, to find out more about the groups and what happens there, as well as the impact that The Feast is having on some young people’s lives. Many of the young people like the fact that through this group, they can become friends with people they wouldn’t usually associate themselves with. They love the fact that they can be treated like adults and have big responsibilities, such as making important decisions. They feel this group has made it easier to approach people of other religions, and ask them questions about things that they do, why it’s done, what they think of something, without feeling the need to hesitate. ‘’In this group, we’re improving our friendship and teamwork’’. Another highlight was being able to meet new people and to learn how to build up their confidence even more. “It’s fun to come, you get new experiences.’’
On Thursday, I walked around the playground in Golden Hillock School, to find out some more about other young people and their faith. I spoke to 38 people to find out the overall opinions in relation to religion and friends. I was quite surprised at the results! 37 out of 38 pupils had friends that were a different religion to them, yet 27 had never discussed religion with their friends. However, 27 people said that they find it easy to talk about their religion to people of a different faith, and 28 would like the opportunity to discuss beliefs more.
At my school, there is both an Islamic society and a Christian union but both keep apart and avoid contact with each other. They’re two separate groups, and when contact is made, there’s just continuous arguments and frustration in the misunderstandings and differences between them. Because of this, over the past week I’ve been quite surprised at how within school people can discuss their own beliefs in a group, in comfort and without any arguments or disputes. It seems a privilege to be able to do this in a positive environment where it’s encouraged to work and talk together with respect for each other.
Overall, I’ve had an amazing week working with The Feast! I’ve had the chance to meet so many new people and found out much more about what different people believe and the challenges that other young people face when both religion and personal lives come together. I’ve learned about all the different ways that The Feast has had an effect and made a change in people’s lives. It’s been an amazing experience which has taught me so many things about myself, other people and it’s improved my confidence greatly.
The Feast in one word? ‘’Wicked!’’ –Ali, Y4S at Golden Hillock School
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4 Comments on "The Feast – Back Stage Pass"
wow, this girl’s amazing..
:’)
Nice Lizzie! And thanks for your help yesterday. So pleased work experience was so positive and you learned a lot, it was great to have you around (although I hardly saw you!)
i think it is very good that you chose to do work experience at the feast and it is very good that you learnt about what the feast do,
today we had a feast workshop , i enjoyed learning about people’s beliefs and questioning them about it. The feast a really good charity supporting people from different religious backgrounds