News

Freshwinds has today announced Gabby’s Gift, a project working with Birmingham Children’s Hospital to provide therapeutic treatment to their patients, families and their carers.

The project centres around a little girl called Gabby, who was a patient at Birmingham Children’s Hospital who sadly passed away in 2012. After Gabby’s passing, her mum Lyndsay approached Freshwinds about what she thought would have helped her and her daughter during this difficult time; a programme of therapeutic support. Lyndsay said that complementary therapies would have helped to have given her a brief moment of relaxation and reflection in the most saddening time of her life, and have helped to provide Gabby with tactile sensation to help relax her and reduce her stress and anxiety.

Freshwinds has worked together with both Lyndsay and Birmingham Children’s Hospital to design a programme of therapeutic care and support for both children and their Carers. We named this Gabby’s Gift after the little girl who inspired this project.
To make this project a reality, we are looking to obtain £30,000 to cover all costs and expenses, as well as to provide future funding to expand the service into further wards throughout the hospital.

If you are able to pledge your support to the project, we would be extremely grateful – the project is housed and can be found on Crowdfunder.

We are excited to announce the design of a beautiful new building for our Jesoor Al-Salaam Project. Freshwinds will very soon be acquiring the land for this building and we expect construction work to begin in the new year.

This building will help us to deliver our projects and support our clients for decades to come in a modern, tranquil environment with much improved facilities, access and capacity.

We are extremely saddened to announce the passing of our dear sister and colleague Dr Mayada Hassan. Dr Hassan had been battling bravely against cancer and had been on sabbatical with Freshwinds for some time. She had been improving over the last year but very sadly passed away quite suddenly.

Dr Hassan worked in Integrated Medicine, as well as working with us on some of our TB awareness raising projects and latterly as a Trustee. She was deeply humanitarian and was particularly interested in women and children’s health and wellbeing issues. She will be deeply missed by her friends and colleagues at Freshwinds, who knew her to be an incredibly warm, loving, caring and compassionate person.

Our thoughts and most heartfelt condolences are with Dr Hassan’s family during this difficult time, and we hope that through peace, prayer and blessings they find comfort through embracing and celebrating Dr Hassan’s wonderful life.

 

Freshwinds is delighted to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday today. We greatly enjoyed the service of thanksgiving events yesterday, and look forward to watching the televised events today including the inspection of the guard and a flypast by planes from the RAF.

We send our prayers and best wishes to her on this wonderful day and throughout her continuing reign.

Freshwinds wishes Her Majesty a very happy 90th birthday.

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed James Voller as Deputy CEO of Freshwinds in addition to his current responsibilities as Director of Development, HR and Finance. This is in keeping with our Board-approved succession planning. James has been at Freshwinds for nearly 7 years and has shown outstanding dedication to the organisation and to the clients and citizens that we serve.

This forms one of a number of changes which will see the expansion of our Management team. Indeed this has already begun with the appointment of Mr Ian Dalton as Operations Manager and we will shortly be recruiting both a Business Development Manager as well as a Senior Trusts and Corporate Fundraiser. This is to augment the functions of the Senior Management team as our new work develops and expands, especially in relation to our major international funding.

“I am honoured to serve as the Deputy CEO of Freshwinds in what is to be a very exciting and positively challenging time for the organisation. I am sure that together with my fellow Directors, Managers and all our staff and volunteers we can continue to provide excellent services and make a significant difference to the lives of Birmingham’s citizens. I would like to thank Mohammed Al-Rahim and all the Board of Trustees for their faith in me and for their continuing support over many years and, I am sure, into the future.”

James Voller, 2016

It is our deepest pleasure to extend our greetings and heartfelt best wishes on this important occasion of the United Arab Emirates’ National Day which celebrates the 44 years of the 7 Emirates coming together as a nation.

May Allah’s blessings be upon all the people of the 7 Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras-al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain.

Mohammed Al-Rahim, Freshwinds and the Jesoor Al-Salaam Project Team send prayers and best wishes to all our Emirati colleagues in the Gulf.

Date of Event:                  21^st September 2015, 12.30 – 16.30
Location of Event:           BVSC, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 6DR

 
Freshwinds will be leading the Community Support Network at the Syrian Refugee Crisis “briefing and support” event, which will be held at BVSC on the 21^st September 2015.

 
The purpose of the event is to explore the ways in which Birmingham’s voluntary sector can mobilise support for those arriving as a result of the Syrian crisis and coordinate an appropriate city-wide offer to provide assistance, support and help to those in need.

 
The event well be attended by members of Birmingham City Council, the Refugee Council, and the Community Support Network, amongst other organisations and partner agencies.

 
Places are limited. For further information and booking details, please follow this link:

http://www.bvsc.org/event/supporting-syria%E2%80%99s-refugees-birmingham%E2%80%99s-voluntary-sector-response

Freshwinds is delighted to celebrate this landmark day when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom: 63 years and 7 months (since 2nd June 1953). The previous record holder was her great great grandmother, Queen Victoria. She has reigned during one of the most profound and turbulent periods in human history and we believe the success of the United Kingdom, Europe and the Commonwealth during this time has been in no small part to her hard work and dignity. We send her our prayers and good wishes now and for the rest of her reign.