Holiday project builds friendships between young Muslims and Christians

Young people across Birmingham had the chance to turn holidays into holy days as Muslims and Christians explored their faiths together.

Workshops and events were held throughout the half-term break by The Feast, a local charity working to build friendships between teenagers of different faiths.

In a faith and fashion event, youngsters were given the opportunity to explore the impact of their beliefs on what they wear and how old or unused clothing can be given a new lease of life.

Other events during the week-long break included a comedy course and a movie marathon which saw youngsters watch 10 episodes of Dr Who throughout the night.

The film-fest, attended by 12 to 17-year-olds, raised £500 towards The Feast's work.

Local comedian Barbara Nice lent her wisdom to young people from Aston and Newtown as they prepared for the Faithful and Funny comedy evening. Barbara and the young performers were joined by comedian Shaista Aziz for the free show.

Hanna Warsame, a 20-year-old volunteer at The Feast, organised the faith and fashion event.

“It was much harder than I thought it would be,” she said. “I never imagined there’d be so much to think about to run one event but I'm glad I did it and I'm happy with how it turned out.”

Warsame is now organising a talent show to help raise funds to send a group of young Christians and Muslims to Turkey to teach youth there how to discuss faith appropriately.

The culmination of the week was a workshop led jointly by Ulfah Arts and the Saltmine Trust. Nine young people came together to learn new acting skills and perform stories from the Christian and the Muslim traditions.

Organiser Jenny Creasy said, “Drama proved to be a great way for young people from different faiths to get together and the young people said they had got a lot out of the workshop. They told us that it helped them realise that it's not too scary to talk about religion and built their confidence to perform in front of people they did not know.”

Feast Project Manager, Tim Fawssett said: “This has been a wonderful week in which young people have come together in so many different ways to build deep and trusting friendships with each other.

“It is great to see teenagers gaining the confidence to talk about their own faith and growing in understanding of another faith.

"These kinds of friendships, this honesty and openness and the levels of trust we see between young people of different faiths are really important not only for these individuals but for their faith communities and this city as a whole.”