Adam Hopkins says the Marks Gate Relief Project is using cricket as a force for good
“These women have come a long way from being homeless to being able to sustain themselves socially, emotionally, and economically,” Asma Haq of the Marks Gate Relief Project (MGRP) proudly tells The Cricket Paper.
Along with her husband Saud Siddiqui, Asma created MGRP and has been running community cohesion activities and women empowerment and social welfare projects to support the local community in Barking and Dagenham.
A philanthropist from a chemical engineering background, Asma moved to London from the UAE 15 years ago and since then has been an important member of the East London community, starting by offering free chemistry tutoring to GCSE and A-Level students and at one point running a soup kitchen out of her own home.
Focusing on local youth and women, MGRP is a non-for-profit community interest company that relies on volunteers to boost community engagement and provide education. MGRP is run and managed by a team of dedicated female volunteers and for the last couple of years has been using cricket to help refugee and disadvantaged women find confidence and a sense of belonging.
Many of the women who have attended the sessions since their inception are from BAME backgrounds and have experienced trauma, finding themselves in East London after leaving countries such as Uganda, Mauritius and Pakistan. Some of them are homeless, some of them have previously been sexually exploited, some of them are victims of domestic violence, forced marriages and female genital mutilation, and some came with young children to feed.
When Asma initially started running the cricket sessions two-and-ahalf years ago, the take-up was low. “They were very reluctant,” she revealed. “The first session was a no-show. I advertised it, I promoted it. I personally invited women to come down and attend. It just didn’t work out.”
Asma had to offer incentives, fully understanding that something like cricket wasn’t a priority in these women’s lives at that time.
“What I would do is I tell them to come play cricket for a bit and then I will give you some extra food or extra clothes or a storybook for your child. Something additional which they thought was more valuable and necessary compared to cricket.”
A lot of thought also had to be put into tailoring the sessions specifically to the women’s needs. Two particular concerns were about accessibility and the presence of men.
“I had to make a lot of adjustments and convince these ladies it’s going to be good fun. I made sure it’s indoors, I made sure there were no men allowed, I made sure that the women could wear absolutely anything they wanted to wear.”
Slowly but surely attendance started to grow and the women would start coming back when the
