New roots in Scotland

Amplifying Voices is setting down new roots in Scotland. It became official in January when we received an email from OSCR to say:

I am pleased to tell you that the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is satisfied that your organisation meets the charity test, and has entered it in the Scottish Charity Register.

We felt this was news worth celebrating – so we invited some local friends and some less local friends to join us for food and a presentation at a Pakistan themed event on May 20th in Duns in the Scottish Borders. We also invited our friend Hazeen Latif from Amplifying Voices Pakistan to come and present his work. Unfortunately Hazeen wasn’t granted a visa to travel to the UK, but thanks to Zoom meetings and a Zoom mixing desk, it felt almost like he was in the room. It was around midnight in Pakistan, but you wouldn’t have known it was so late because of Hazeen’s energy and enthusiasm for his work. He shared how a flood response in Nowshera evolved into the Bright Home project, a unique combination of sewing centres where women can access sewing equipment, vocational training as well as taking part in community-centred media training and production. People in the Duns meeting were able talk directly to Hazeen – asking some quite deep questions – and giving us all a chance to get to know the work in Pakistan better.

Members of the Amplifying Voices operational team and the UK board, who are all based in Worthing normally, joined us for the weekend. So we made the most of the opportunity and had an away-day on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) facilitated by Scott Brennan from the Community of Aidan and Hilda. Two friends from Duns came along too to help us develop stronger roots. Holy Island is a beautiful location, accessible via a causeway for two 6-hour periods every 24hrs – cut off by high tide for the rest of the day. We decided to stay long enough to be cut-off by the tide and leave the island late evening when the tide went back out. It was very peaceful and tranquil in the evening sun, with most of the tourists gone.

Holy Island is also a really important place in the early history of Christianity in Britain. We also found it a particularly poignant place. One of the earliest leaders to settle there, St Aidan, used very holistic practices which resonate with us. He was someone who was known for listening and understanding the communities he went to, working with their strengths, bringing along with him people with practical skills so as not to be burden to the communities, yet gently introducing ideas that would transform culture.  It would be anachronistic to suggest he was some kind of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) practitioner, much as his methods look similar. The true history of St Aidan has probably been somewhat sanitised and romanticised over time. All the same his story and reputation formed a great starting point for reflecting on how we can better fulfil our mission to equip communities to take a lead role in their own transformation.

On one hand, registration with OSCR doesn’t actually change many things about our charity. We have been registered in England and Wales for 10 years this month. We will keep doing what we have been doing. But registration does allow us to be more active in Scotland in telling the stories of the communities we support. We could even facilitate an Amplifying Voices project here if opportunity arose.

My name is Johnny Fisher. I’m an Amplifying Voices associate based in Duns, in the Scottish Borders. Until now I’ve been working with our partners and supporters ‘from a distance’. With this registration, I can now work locally and I would love to speak to individuals and/or groups across Scotland who would like to hear how Amplifying Voices helps tribal groups to live together in peace, equips communities to access clean water, supports women to create new opportunities, and walks with families to move beyond gender-based violence. Contact me here to learn how you can join us on our journey.

And in case you were wondering – our Scottish registration number is SC052271