The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust began an Arts Council funded, Bangladeshi women’s project: ‘Kotha and Kantha’, in April 2016.

Women from Manchester Bangladeshi Women’s Organisation, Ananna, have been working with Dipali Das, a Bangladeshi writer, to reflect on their lives and personal stories. Later in the project, they will be working on embroidery with Lynn Setterington, Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and photographer, Jason Lock, who will photograph the women and their embroidery pieces.

Dipali is also using the collections of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, including archives, to write her own creative pieces around migration. The project will culminate in a celebration event in July 2016 and the women’s stories and Dipali’s work will be available to read in the local history section of the Centre, in Manchester Central Library.

From October to December 2016, the photographs will be displayed in Central Library’s Community Exhibition Space, along with outputs from the Trust’s ‘Legacy of Ahmed’ Project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Trust sees this arts project as a pilot and hopes to work in this way with different local communities.