Neelam Ahmed
Neelam Ahmed was born Pakistan. She came to the UK when she was fourteen years old in 1976. Neelam has been involved with Silai for Skills from the very beginning and she was Silai's first ever Chair of the Management Committee; a post she held for several years.
"We found Aroona, opened a group, it was called Totterdown Asian Women's Group, and we started with about seven to eight ladies. Then slowly slowly we had a lot of ladies and then Aroona gets funding and she arranged lots of trips. A good thing in our group, was there wasn't any religious thing, there was no Muslim, no Christian, no Sikh, no Hindu. It was everybody together. We found that lots of ladies were isolated in their own homes, and there was nowhere to go, nowhere to speak, and some of them you could say were quite depressed as well. We had English classes as well over there. The ladies didn't go to college, they didn't have a crËche over there, so Aroona arranged the créche and for the ladies to come and learn English so they can go themselves to the doctor or anywhere, so they can speak themselves. Then Silai came and we had lots of ladies to come and do the different courses.
I made a few clothes after that for myself, I mean I don't make designer ones but ordinary, now I know how to make myself. I made shalwar kameez and I can make lehnga trouser suit, and we say a ghagra choli, like a skirt and a small top, I can make that as well."
