Men's Diaspora Group

Mar 15, 2023

Read about CDEC's work with the Men's Diaspora Group.

We have recently had the pleasure of working with the Men’s Diaspora Group – we initially organised eight sessions in the Secret Garden at Tullie House to focus on various garden maintenance tasks. These bi-weekly sessions provided a safe outdoor space where participants could get together, meet new communities and enjoy the mental and physical benefits of gardening and being outdoors.

Following excellent feedback and eagerness from members, we then arranged five additional volunteer opportunities outside of Carlisle; varying from practical conservation tasks with RSPB Geltsdale to assisting with farm tasks at Low Beckside Farm with The Ernest Cook Trust. 

The group also assisted with an archeological dig hosted by DigVentures at Long Meg and learnt more about our cultural heritage by visiting farms and lime kilns in the Fellfoot Forward scheme area; sharing perspectives at a Force of Nature inspired Climate Café.

Participants then got to use their existing skills and worked with Environmental Land Artist Richard Shilling to weave the willow egg sculptures that can be seen in our ‘Your Green PLACE’ Exhibition in the community gallery at Tullie House.

Here is some of the wonderful feedback we got:

“We meet antiquities guides and they explain to us the heritage. Everyone, my friends, was delighted with these outings. When we go for walks we feel relaxed. We've been sitting in rooms for days, so we're patiently waiting for our picnic day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. These outings will not be forgotten in memory, because we have all the comfortable equipment. We have pictures of all the places we visited. We publish them among friends and family and tell them about these beautiful charitable works"

-        Hussein 

 

"It was a very nice trip, and I would like you to take more trips , get to know Cumbria and make friends. Thank you"

-        Sadar

 

"It was a wonderful trip in which I enjoyed the stunning scenery, met friendly people, and got to know some archaeological sites and interesting information. Thank you for this wonderful trip" 

-        Gamal 

 

You can see and read more about our work with the Men's Diaspora Group, and the Green Place project at our exhibition in Tullie House. You can read more about it here.