Upcoming events

EAL Healthy Cooking Club - ETNA Centre (MAP)

Thursday 11th June, 10.30am to 1.30pm

Thursday 9th July 10.30am to 1.30pm

See our previous Healthy Cooking Club events here

 

Thanks to Matilda and Yasmin for organising our trip to Kensington Palace on Friday 1st May.

Many thanks to Tharik from Habitats & Heritage for giving us an interesting insight into the lives of Sir Richard Burton and his wife Lady Isobel.  We look forward to joining you for the public opening of the restored Mausoleum.

Azize prepared a delicious meal which is often served on important occasions and is a regional speciality: Kabune Pilav.

Caroline and Heidi from the NHS came to visit us on Monday 12th January to interview our Cantonese speakers for a special piece of important research.

On Monday 19th January, we welcomed three visitors from the Library Services: Kim, Daniel and Antonio.

On 11th December we had another wonderful EAL Healthy Cooking Club session just before the end of last term with Lusine who prepared an Armenian feast for us.

On Tuesday 2nd and Friday 5th December, EAL learners and friends of Richmond EAL collected £575 for our charity by joining Santa in Twickenham under the umbrella of Twickenham upon Thames Rotary Club.

We had our third and final Nature Journalling session of the Autumn term at Kew Gardens with the wonderful Lily O'Connor.

In November Petra Cox from Habitats and Heritage came to two Monday classes and gave us all a fascinating glimpse into the history of managing London’s sewage! This included some shocking details about the situation before the arrival of the wonderful Joseph Bazalgette who completely transformed the management of sewage in the rapidly increasing population of London in the late nineteenth century.

On 13th November Fikrte prepared a delicious Ethiopian meal for us all. Many of us had never tried Ethiopian cuisine before and we were excited to have this unique opportunity of trying her traditional and very healthy recipes including injera - a most unusual type of bread.

Prepare a dish to donate if you can and join us on Friday 21st November, 4-6pm at ETNA, to try festive foods from around the world!

We have had two fantastic Nature Journalling sessions at Kew Gardens so far with the lovely Lily O'Connor. There's one more left for this year, coming up on Friday 28th November, 9.45am to 11.30am.

Join us 10am-12.30pm to hear from guest speakers on various topics related to education and employment.

Donations of different foods from around the world from Mortlake EAL group to the sensory event held at Mortlake Hall.

An enjoyable, casual walk and talk around Mortlake streets led by Pam McMillen. We hope to enjoy many more walks as the seasons change.

Please contact Cornelia if you have questions and would like to attend a session on Mondays 10.30am-12pm at the Whittaker Ellis Suite, Old Town Hall, TW9 1TP

Daniel O'Sullivan visited our Thursday class at ETNA last week and encouraged several of our learners to get help to find a job and to get long term support for employment. The difference between this help and the help available at Job Centres, is that it is one to one help for as long as necessary. It is a new FREE service and learners should register with Ruth or Rebecca if they are interested so they can be referred to Daniel. Daniel promises to respond to everyone within two working days! You can see the happy faces during Daniel's visit in the following photos...

Many thanks to our trustee Matilda who ran over 42 km across Richmond this Sunday in aid of our charity!

Thanks to everyone who attended our celebration on Sunday 6th July, 12pm to 4pm at the ETNA Centre. Read about our recent parties below, and please send us any more photos and videos of the latest or previous events.

We were lucky to have the perfect early summer weather for our trip to Kew Gardens last week!

Ming met May through Richmond EAL, and they have become friends through shared community activities. They often join local events together and enjoy engaging with UK culture, such as watching tennis at Wimbledon.

Four of our learners recently visited Guildford by train. Thanks to May for sharing her account of their trip below.

Celebrating Richmond's sanctuary-seeking and migrant communities and their contributions to our borough's rich, multicultural life.

Last Friday Yasmin and Matilda took their Friday EAL coffee morning members for a brilliant picnic brunch by the river.

Moon brought along a huge feast for us all to share as well as preparing her fried noodles dish which was very popular. Kenneth taught everyone how to use chopsticks correctly and we all enjoyed naming the ingredients and doing a quiz together and then telling each other the names of kitchen utensils and equipment in our home languages. These were: Cantonese, Mandarin, Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Farsi/Dari and Japanese! It was a very jolly occasion and we now have to wait until October for our next EAL healthy cooking club session.....

19 lucky participants speaking the following 11 languages enjoyed Preetha's delicious South Indian idlis and dosas with peanut chutney and spicy sambar: Cantonese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, Farsi/Dari, Punjabi, Hindi

Maggie prepared two recipes from Hong Hong for us. One was smashed cucumber and the other one was ginger and egg fried rice. Everybody joined in with the cooking - and eating! We had 17 participants speaking the following 11 home languages: Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian!

Suzanne and Katie came to tell us about Healthwatch Richmond and also offered some individual confidential advice during our coffee break - which was appreciated. We were shocked to discover that our borough (LBRUT) has the highest rate of alcohol consumption in all 32 London boroughs but other more cheerful information was about the large number of free classes and groups offering advice and activities for all across the borough. We were reminded that Healthwatch Richmond also offers free advice from 9am to 5pm from Monday to Friday each week to enable us to access all the NHS services available.

Seven learners enjoyed a wonderfully sunny spring morning to visit the exhibition of Mingzhang Sun's work at the Orleans House Gallery and then to walk along the river. The languages spoken were: Hungarian, Tamil, Spanish, Russian,Ukrainian and Cantonese. Everybody chatted with each other and the time flew by and suddenly we realised that three hours had passed!

We delivered three information sessions about the HPV vaccination programme sponsored by the NHS for our charity. Learners were very interested in finding out how to protect their children and themselves from various cancers. Since we now know that one in every two people will develop some kind of cancer during their lifetime, it is vital that we do all we can to prevent this disease.

Five learners enjoyed the beautiful weather on our Walk & Talk last week. Masha introduced us to the wonderful York House Gardens and to her favourite tree which was in full bloom. This mimosa tree is not only the symbol of the arrival of spring in Russia but also the flower used to celebrate International Women's Day on the 8th of March! We were delighted to see the attached information board produced by Alison Greenwood of the Dose of Nature charity.

Michelle Wheeler gave us an inspiring and informative presentation on the Mulberry Centre. We learned about the wide range of services which are offered to anyone affected by cancer by this amazing centre. Michelle explained that relatives and friends of cancer sufferers can come to the centre for emotional support, complementary treatments and relaxation both indoors and outside in their lovely garden.

Masha prepared a most unusual and delicious recipe for us called: 'Herring under a Fur Coat'! 16 enthusiastic learners attended this popular workshop.

Alison Greenwood enchanted us all with her workshop about her charity. She decorated the room with bunches of flowers from her garden and supervised a delightful meditation session which all 17 participants enjoyed.

39 learners and volunteers enjoyed fantastic weather and a wonderful visit to the Orchid Festival at Kew which this year celebrated orchids from Peru.

Lee Barbieri once more delivered a useful presentation about the services offered by Richmond and Hillcroft Adult Community College Information, Advice and Guidance (RHACC IAG). He has offered to come again to give one-to-one advice to learners during our class.

On Wednesday 29th January, Valentina from CAR (Citizens Advice Richmond), gave us a talk about their services and handed out some leaflets.

We were delighted to receive two excellent and informative presentations this week by Michelle Wheeler from the Mulberry Centre.

Our New Year Festive Food Swap on 16th January was a very jolly occasion with wonderful food, which was all consumed with enthusiasm!

The curator of Museum of Richmond took 15 of us to visit this wonderful local gem.  Thank you Gary for the tour on your day off!

Here are some of our lovely WFSC Volunteers

A small group of us were invited to a nature journalling session at Kew Gardens where we foraged for a variety of fungi. We then dissected them and produced some excellent observational drawings and paintings.

Many thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund for awarding us £20,000 on 15 November 2024.

Kiyomi flew back from Japan the day before cooking club bringing fresh ingredients from Tokyo for her delicious Okonomiyaki. 16 lucky learners were able to enjoy this healthy and popular recipe.

On a visit to Marble Hill House

Chief Executive Ruth Durant presented the work of Richmond EAL in a session on language learning outside ‘mainstream’ contexts, organised by Dr Virginia Lam, University of Roehampton, as part of The Language Show 2024.

On Thursday 12th September, we hosted the first EAL Healthy Cooking Club of the new school year. Sevdiye, a newly enrolled learner, cooked a wonderful healthy traditional Turkish recipe for the 16 participants plus the three Office staff. 

25 learners were able to visit Ham House and Gardens last week due to the generosity of the National Trust allowing free entrance to us for the foreseeable future!

We had a great trip to Kew Gardens with 19 participants speaking Cantonese, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Quechua, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Bashkir, Tatar, Bengali, Armenian, Japanese and Thai. We had perfect weather for a change!

On 13th June, we started our Walk & Talk with a visit to Marble Hill House where we were pleased to receive the typed transcript of the introductory video which is always playing as we walk in…

On 6th June we visited the Kitchen Garden at Marble Hill Park and Moon had her successful interview with Harrison (Manager) and now has received her uniform and started her volunteering post!

We all enjoyed three delicious Russian recipes prepared by Marina, Masha and Mariia.

Our team of wonderful learners, trustees and volunteers set up and ran a stall at the May Fair selling great food prepared and donated by our learners and others.

Our Food and Craft stall at Ham Parade Market on Saturday 4th May was bathed in sunshine and well attended.

After a delightful walk in the spring sunshine, through the park and the Orleans Woods, we visited the current exhibition at the Stables Gallery, (part of Orleans House Gallery).

Carrie came to say goodbye to us at Teddington Hydrotherapy Pool before moving away from Richmond with her family to Milton Keynes.

We celebrated the first day of spring (21st March) by visiting the Kitchen Garden in Marble Hill Park and chatting with Mike, one of the volunteers.

We celebrated our Spring Fun Food Swap on Thursday 14th March with some delicious dishes from Hong Kong, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Brazil and Colombia.

On Wednesday 13th March, Michelle Wheeler from the Mulberry Centre gave us a most informative presentation about this important charity.

Thanks to Healthwatch Richmond for coming to speak at one of our classes.

Ruth, our CEO, was invited to write an article about our charity for the 50th anniversary edition of the BERA (British Educational Research Association) magazine under the theme Unheard Voices.

We had perfect weather for last week's Walk & Talk, bright blue sky and a fresh breeze.

Thirteen EAL learners, speaking the following languages, joined our trip to the Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens on Monday: ARABIC, CANTONESE, KURDISH, TURKISH, RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN and JAPANESE.

Alison Greenwood visited our ETNA class and inspired us all to spend a great deal more time outside enjoying the benefits of fresh air and the beauty of nature to improve our mental health.

Jonathan and Antonette created a wonderful Sri Lankan mutton and vegetable soup recipe for our January EAL Healthy Cooking Club.

Despite cold - and even icy weather, our intrepid walkers have trudged for more than two hours each week while enjoying the river, the wildlife, the Orleans House Woods, the Kitchen Garden, the Grotto and wonderful trees and plants...

Thanks to the NHS Winter Engagement Programme, we were able to share important health advice and information to our learners in class.

On Friday 15th December, EAL learners and friends of Richmond EAL Friendship Group spent an enjoyable and most successful evening collecting money for our charity by joining Santa in Teddington, under the umbrella of the Rotary Club's annual Santa Sleigh event.