Westminster Bangladeshi Association
The City of Westminster is at the heart of social, political, economic and community activities in Britain and beyond with diverse history and opulent heritage. However, within Westminster and in the shadow of big commerce there are many pockets of council estates scattered across the borough, which unlike other inner city boroughs, seems to escape the eyes of both the media and government. There is minimal support for BME communities in Westminster, despite a myriad of disadvantages. This has meant that such communities have been struggling to achieve equality of opportunities. As a result, there has been a prevalence of social exclusion, which been proven a major barrier to a prosperous and cohesive community in Westminster.
The Bangladeshi community settled in the borough after the Second World War. Bangladeshi community of South Westminster is a hidden in a number of council estates, e.g. Milbank, Churchill Garden, Grosvenor etc. Due to the disadvantages faced by the Bangladeshi community, they have found it difficult to engage themselves in mainstream services and politically to improve socially and economically. In response to this ever-exacerbating exclusion, a minority of the Bangladeshi people campaigned for community awareness and wider participation, to relieve poverty and multifarious disadvantages from an organised platform.
গত ৫ মে, সোমবার ওয়েস্টমিনস্টার বাংলাদেশি এসোসিয়েশনের উদ্যোগে বাংলা বর্ষবরণ উৎসবের আয়োজন করা হয়। এ উপলক্ষে আয়োজিত আলোচনা সভায় সভাপতিত্ব করেন ডব্লিউবিএ’র ভাইস চেয়ারম্যান সাজিদ মিয়া। অনুষ্ঠানটি যৌথভাবে সঞ্চালনা করেন ডব্লিউবিএ’র সাংগঠনিক সম্পাদক হাসনাত সাবরি (সেলিম) ও স্থানীয় সংগীত শিল্পী রওশনারা মনি।
This led to the formation of Westminster Bangladeshi Association (WBA), which is a not for profit voluntary sector organisation with registered charity status, which was initiated in 2002 by the socially excluded and economically marginalised people of Bangladeshi origin living in the City of Westminster and was formally constituted as an organisation in March 2003. It has been delivering services with volunteers from the inception and the notion of volunteering has been a key driving force in the success of WBA.
Our Supporters
WBA has worked hard to develop partnership initiatives with organisations within Westminster as well as other London Boroughs. WBA has established links with a number of organisations. In delivering WBA’s future vision WBA recognises the importance of working in partnership and will actively seek to build new relations with other organisations.
Service Delivery
WBA’s service delivery is designed to engaging the BME community focusing on the Bangladeshi people of Westminster and enabling them to access mainstream services and opportunities to achieve social cohesion and better community relations, within the broader framework of multiculturalism. In so doing, WBA is aiming to work in partnership with other voluntary organisations in the borough to maximise output by consorted initiatives and endeavours.
Whilst WBA is aiming to expand its current level of service delivery, on the one hand, it is striving to develop a cohesive partnership with other stakeholders in the area, on the other hand, by focusing on the people of Bangladeshi origin and promoting their well being by engaging them to be socially included through active participation.
WBA as an organisation operates at the grassroots level and has a clear idea of where the community priority lies as WBA management and members are all from the local community.WBA is seeking affiliation from regulatory organisations to uphold the standard of service delivery by introducing and maintaining compliance requirements.
WBA was running from small premises in the past, which rented from the local authority, in order to balance the supply and demand ratio, WBA have expanded more as an organisation and acquired a lease of a larger premises in South Westminster for Community Centre.
