INSAAN presents An Eid Adventure 2019

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The Thames Valley Adventure Playground (TVAP) has become a hugely popular and wonderful choice for holding INSAAN family events. This year was no different, as INSAAN hosted families from Reading, Slough, High Wycombe, Wokingham, Finchampstead and Basingstoke to celebrate Eid with their loved ones on a fun-filled day at a fantastic adventure park! The Playground boasts a number of amazing facilities, including sensory rooms, soft play halls, bikes, go karts, adventure castles, water pits, zip lines, King Kong and much much more!

It was particularly encouraging to see many hands-on fathers joining in and participating in the various activities at the specially adapted premises. There was a great family atmosphere and many parents commented on how relaxed they felt all afternoon while at the venue. The 3 course meal also went down a treat!!

It was humbling to be inundated with requests from families wanting to attend. We appreciate the enthusiasm and support of all our families, and regrettably had to exercise a strict first come-first served policy to ensure safety for those attending on the day. We hope to hold a similar function in the near future.

Please note we have only uploaded images where parents have given their consent.

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INSAAN presents An Eid Adventure 2016

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The Thames Valley Adventure Playground (TVAP) has become a hugely popular and wonderful choice for holding INSAAN family events. This year was no different, as INSAAN hosted families from Reading, Slough, High Wycombe, Wokingham, Finchampstead and Basingstoke to celebrate Eid with their loved ones on a fun-filled day at a fantastic adventure park! The Playground boasts a number of amazing facilities, including sensory rooms, soft play halls, bikes, go karts, adventure castles, water pits, zip lines, King Kong and much much more!

It was particularly encouraging to see many hands-on fathers joining in and participating in the various activities at the specially adapted premises. There was a great family atmosphere and many parents commented on how relaxed they felt all afternoon while at the venue. The 3 course meal also went down a treat!!

It was humbling to be inundated with requests from families wanting to attend. We appreciate the enthusiasm and support of all our families, and regrettably had to exercise a strict first come-first served policy to ensure safety for those attending on the day. We hope to hold a similar function in the near future.

Please note we have only uploaded images where parents have given their consent.

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A Special Mother’s Day 2016

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This year, we added a special twist to our famous Special Mother’s Day celebration to make it that much more of a wonderful family gathering. Naats, Nasheeds and some additional soft music set the scene for a really relaxing, chilled out atmosphere. There was a large inflatable assault course which the young ones loved!! Some of the dads also had a go but found it fairly challenging, with the children running rings around them! There were tonnes of prizes and gifts up for grabs for all the mums and children throughout the never-ending party games and races! We are so happy that the families found it so relieving to be in a bubble without any concerns, and to top it off, finish with a delicious 3-course meal. Thank you to all the Special families who supported this very Special Mother’s Day.

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Sponsoring the Dick Whittington Pantomine, Hexagon Theatre, Reading

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It was a really busy morning on 31st December for INSAAN as we saw out 2015 with a Pantomime at the Hexagon. The “relaxed performance” of Dick Whittington proved to be a big box office hit with our Special Needs families. INSAAN sponsored over 100 people, including children, parents, grandparents and carers to attend the show. It was absolutely lovely to see everyone in a happy, joyful and festive mood. Many thanks also to the Hexagon staff for delaying the start of the performance for a few minutes as we tried to accommodate all those waiting patiently in the queue to collect their tickets.

One young lad asked a member of the INSAAN Team: “Are you Father Christmas?”, “How did you guess?” came the reply, “Because you are giving away tickets for free!!” commented the little boy.

Yo Ho Ho Ho. Happy New Year to All.

 Take a look at our photo highlights!

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Special Families Fun Day @ The Warehouse

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What an absolutely amazing Family Fun Day! This one had it all. Naats, Nasheeds, Qawaali, Henna workshop, Music Workshop, Gladiators, Soccer Shoot Out, Soft Play Area and a three course meal. Many, many, many Thanks to all the Special Needs Families that made the event a huge success. We look forward to more of the same in 2016 and beyond.Photographs Copyright INSAAN. Permission for dissemination must be obtained first.

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Culture Day & Children In Need at The Avenue School

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The Avenue School in Reading is an academy designed for children with special needs; it has a proud history of celebrating cultural activities to reflect the Multi-Ethnicity and Multi-Cultural mix of our wider community. On Friday 13th November, INSAAN joined forces with Avenue staff to celebrate Culture day and Children in Need with the super-talented children. Headteacher, Dame Sue Bourne looked the part in her dazzling black sequined sari as she introduced us to the order of the day. Poetry and scripture reading was followed by music provided by brothers Dhanyal and Idris Butt whose older brother Omar, a former Avenue School pupil, was also in the audience. Everyone joined in to clap along with the melodious tunes. We also had a sensory workshop (see, touch, taste, feel, smell) with children experimenting with aromatic herbs and spices. Cookery was also on the menu and all the children were involved in making “Aloo Tikki” (fried potato cakes) from scratch. They went down really well. Staff and pupils loved the Henna artistry workshop with many volunteers having hands and arms tatooed. Lunch was a typical Asian meal which included samosas, pakoras, pilau rice, chicken curry and chick pea curry. There was also a music workshop which the children really enjoyed; the pleasure and stimulation of “music therapy” was a sight to behold. Our day ended with pupils dressing up and letting their hair down at the school party. It was a fantastic end to a very busy and active day. We all had a great time and we hope this work will help promote to the community the contributions and talents that these young children have!

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2nd Annual General Meeting // Annual Report 2014-15

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Many thanks to all who attended the INSAAN AGM on Wednesday 2nd September 2015, 7.00-9.00pm at Aisha Masjid & Islamic Centre. The meeting was chaired by INSAAN’s Community Liaison Officer, Councillor Shahid Younis, and a full report of the preceding year was presented by Dr Asif Butt who highlighted some of the main aims and objectives INSAAN has achieved in a relatively short time. A full and comprehensive financial statement of the accounts was presented by INSAAN Treasurer, Mr Asaf Saleem. There was also a lively Q & A session with some really interesting points of view regarding the state of play between the wider community and their relationship with Families with Special Needs. The future direction of INSAAN seemed to generate a lot of passion during discussions. We will be consulting with Special Needs Families for more input on the subject. All resolutions were duly passed and Trustees re-instated for the next year.

You can Download our Annual Report 2015 below, summarising our year’s activities and progress.

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