Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2018!

We are seriously looking forward to the new year. For us there will be lots of change which is really exciting, a great opportunity for growth, learning and development.

New Location

In our previous blog we mentioned that throughout 2017 we slowly wound down our projects and activities in the UK as we prepared for our big move. We’re now based in the beautiful island of St Kitts and are exploring how our organisation can make a useful contribution to improving the health and well-being of the citizens of St Kitts and Nevis, and the wider Caribbean community too.

St Kitts and the Caribbean have similar health challenges to the African and African-Caribbean community in the UK – high rates of diabetes, obesity (including very high rates of childhood obesity),  some types of cancer (prostate cancer), heart disease and other non-communicable diseases. In addition, there is the issue of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever, Zika and chikungunya. We’re looking forward to seeing how we can support efforts to tackle these health issues by promoting prevention and early detection.

New Name

In just a few weeks’ time we’ll be known as Lake Health and Wellbeing. Whilst we’ll have a new name our mission remains the same: to improve the health and well-being of the black community. We’re almost there, our new logo has been designed, which we love, and we just have a few other logistical issues to iron out with the name change. At this juncture we’d like to say a BIG thank you to FutureSoft for the design of our new logo.

Some of our plans

As well as focusing on the Caribbean we won’t be turning our back on the UK. We’ll continue to support the black community in the UK from afar by providing health information through our blog, social media channels and Learning Zone, as well as teaming up with UK-based organisations like OH Services and Noire Wellness.

We’ll continue offering support  and information to women in the UK (and globally) affected by fibroids through our Fibroids Ask the Expert and fibroids Twitter chats. We’ll also be updating our fibroids booklet and creating a fibroids fact sheet series .  Our first two fact sheets should be launched by the end of January or in early February.  We’re delighted to have teamed up with OH Services to develop one of these fact sheets, Fibroids and your emotional well-being. This fact sheet will aim to help women identify, understand and address the emotions that may be associated with having fibroids. The second fact sheet we’ll be launching will be on exercise and fibroids. In this fact sheet we’ll discuss how exercise can help with improving symptoms and provide readers with simple tips on how to get active without aggravating their current symptoms.

Over the rest of the year our plan is to publish at least three additional fact sheets on:

• Diet and fibroids
• Fibroids and fertility
• Treatment options.

We’re also excited to be exploring the possibility of hosting a fibroids wellness retreat in St Kitts in collaboration with Noire Wellness. We’ll do an assessment and if there is interest, and this is feasible, then look out for an empowering event designed specifically for women with fibroids. If you’ve been affected by fibroids we’d be so grateful if you could complete our survey to help us with our assessment of the need for this type of event. You can complete the survey here.

Have a great year folks

We hope you have a wonderful year and hope you’ll take this journey of transformation with us in 2018. It’s going to be fun and we look forward to working with you, supporting you and serving you in the year ahead.

As the year draws to an end we just wanted to say a big thank you to you all for all your support this year. We really appreciate it. It has been wonderful working with you, serving you and in some cases having great discussions on how we can work together to achieve our aim of improving the health and wellbeing of the black community.

It’s been an interesting year for us as we wound down our activities in the UK in preparation for our relocation to another country.

As we wound down we did feel a sense of sadness as we have gained so much momentum in the UK over the past couple of years particularly with the work we’ve been doing around fibroids, getting the black community active through cycling, working with Diabetes UK to reach the black community in Croydon and providing support to African Caribbean cancer patients, but change is inevitable.

We’re now based in the beautiful island of St Kitts and are exploring how our organisation can fit into the Public Health landscape over here in the Caribbean.  We look forward to serving not just the Caribbean community but continuing to support the black community in the UK from afar through the wonders of technology.

We’ll still be offering support to women in the UK affected by fibroids through our Fibroids Ask the Expert and will be growing the membership of our expert panel to better serve you. We’ll also be  updating our fibroids booklet and creating a fibroids fact sheet series based on the topics that you’ve told us are important to you and we’re excited to be exploring the possibility of hosting a fibroids wellness retreat in collaboration with Noire Wellness.

Over the next few months look out for more changes. With our move to the Caribbean comes a change of name. From early next year our organisation will be known as Lake Health and Wellbeing, whilst we’ll have a new name our mission remains the same: to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community.

It’s exciting times for us and we’re really looking forward to the year ahead.

Once again, thank you for your support thus far and we look forward to connecting with you throughout 2018.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas, a happy New Year and a wonderful, peaceful, successful and healthy 2018.

It’s just a couple of days until Christmas and we’d like to take a few moments to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and as the year draws to an end it’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on the work that we’re doing.

As a result of all your support and encouragement we have been very productive and have made significant progress in working towards our mission of improving the health and well-being of the black community. Thank you for all your support, we really appreciate it.

We are delighted to share our achievements for 2016 with you. Over the past year:

1. Our African Caribbean Cancer Support Group which met monthly continued but came to end as our grant came to an end. We’d like to thank the facilitator of the group Hazel Williams who did a excellent job in providing support to group members and we’d like to thank Macmillan Cancer Support and Croydon Council for funding this project.

2. We continued to offer support to women affected by fibroids through our Fibroids Ask the Expert which provides women with questions or concerns with access to experts in the field who can provide them with accurate reliable information.

3. We organised our first annual fibroid focus conference which was very well attended.

4. We once again teamed up with Black History Walks, Amanda Epe and Dr Sydney Dillard to run a fibroids awareness event with over 200 women attending.

5. We received a grant from Sport England to run our cycling club for a year. Our club began in February 2016. We have 20 members with a core group that have attended regularly come rain or shine. This project is part of our ‘Keep Active’ work which aims to get the black community active.

6. We delivered a range of health awareness presentations to the community.

7. We were featured on Croydon Radio

8. We developed relationships with a number of organisations including Noire Wellness, Voices for Autism, Kinetic Root Services, Diabetes UK, Croydon CCG and the Eve and Grace Wellness Centre

9. We were offered a grant from Croydon Council to run a 12 month diabetes community champion programme in collaboration with Diabetes UK which will start in 2017.

10. We were selected as Noire Wellness’ charity of the year and they will be raising £2000 which will go towards our fibroids education and support programme.

11. On World Mental Health Day we teamed up with film makers and mental health professionals to provide advice on how we can all support someone with a mental health condition.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed 2016 and look forward to continuing our work in 2017. See you next year!

Last month we were delighted to have been interviewed on Gill Manly’s Worker’s Playtime show on Croydon Radio. This was a joint interview with Kinetic Root Services where we discussed trauma in the black community and the work that both our organisations are doing to support the black community through traumatic experiences.

You can listen to the interview below which starts at about an hour and 15 minutes into the show.

 

 

The Lake Foundation would like to wish you all a very merry and happy Christmas.

You can still indulge today whilst being healthy. Remember to include lots of vegetables with your Christmas dinner – try Brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, sweet potatoes and  baked/grilled plantain – and for dessert try a lovely vegan cashew cheese cake.

Additionally, select white meat and fish instead of red meat and keep active – try taking a walk regularly throughout the two week Christmas and New Year period.

 

As the year draws to an end it’s the perfect opportunity to reflect on the work that we’re doing. As a result of all your support and encouragement we have been very productive and have made significant progress in working towards our mission of improving the health and well-being of the black community.

We are delighted to share our achievements for 2015 with you. Over the past year we have:

1. Continued to run our African Caribbean Cancer Support Group which meets monthly  and were delighted to have been awarded a grant by Macmillan to help us increase its membership.

2. Published our new fibroids booklet which aims to be a one-stop-shop for anyone with questions or concerns about fibroids

3. Continued to offer support to women through our Fibroids Ask the Expert which provides women with questions or concerns about fibroids with access to experts in the field that can provide them with accurate reliable information

4. We welcomed a new member to our Fibroids Ask the Expert, Dr Nigel Hacking

5. We continued with our summer cycling sessions  as part of our ‘Keep Active’ work. These sessions had double the number of people attending compared to the previous year.

6. Delivered a range of health awareness presentations to the  community

7.  Recruited new trustees

8. Our founder was presented with an award for her contribution to improving the health and wellbeing of the black community

9. Published the results from Prostate Cancer Engagement and Empowerment pilotthat we conducted with funding from Prostate Cancer UK

10. We were featured on radio and in AfroRetro magazine

11. We were offered a grant from Sport England to run a cycling club for a year and hope to begin this project in January 2016

12. We teamed up with Black History Walks, Amanda Epe and Dr Sydney Dillard to run a fibroids awareness event with over 200 women attending.

13. We became a member of the Croydon BME Forum

14. We piloted ‘AfroFit’ as part of our ‘Keep Active’ work

We were absolutely delighted to be interviewed on Croydon Radio once again about the work of our charity. We featured on Worker’s Playtime this week where we discussed our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of the African and African Caribbean community and also talked about some of the support we’re offering with our cancer support group.

You can listen to a recording below,  our interview starts about an hour into the show.

On Saturday, we were absolutely delighted to attend the MGC GCC Together We Rise awards ceremony which recognised the contribution of black women in Britain who are taking a leading role in enriching and progressing the black community. Our very own Abi Begho received an award for her contribution to the health and wellbeing field and after receiving her award, Abi said:

“I am so happy, honoured and grateful to have received this award and I would like to say a big thank you to the MGC and GCC for recognising the work I’ve been doing with The Lake Foundation. I would also like to say congratulations to all the inspiring award recipients. It’s so important to have an event like this that recognises the important contribution that black women are making in their community.”

This was an excellent, inspiring event which featured women from a variety of fields who spoke about their journey to success, what they learnt from it, the challenges they encountered and how they overcame them.

We applaud the MGC GCC for organising this event and highlighting the great work of black women in the UK.

Full list of awards:

Health
Abi Begho, The Lake Foundation
Rameri Moukam, PattiGift Therapy 

Education
Melanie Hibbert, Primary Learning Centre
Julietta Joseph, Afrika Bantu Saturday School
Afreya Adofo, Afrika Bantu Saturday School
Lorna King, New Mind School

Business
Sophia Bailey, Wealth Creation Mentor
Shirley Best, Rolanda Boutique

Music
OneNess Sankara, Spoken Word Artist
Janet Kay, the Queen of Lover’s Rock
Nyarai Kizzy, Singer and Song Writer

Arts and Culture
Patricia Foster, Creative Education Consultant and Poet

Natural Hair
DebRose Searchwell – Natural November

Media
Linda Graham, Isis Magazine

Activism
Kai Ouagadou-Mbandaka, Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement
Sister Lamisi
Sacha Brown, The Empress Movement

Lifetime Achievement Award
Alderwoman Cllr Gee Bernard

 

We are delighted to introduce you to our Founder, Abi Begho.  In the video below Abi tells us a bit about herself, our work and what inspired her to start The Lake Foundation.

We are absolutely delighted to be featured in the debut edition of AFRO RETRO  magazine, which was officially published on 14th March 2015.

AFRO RETRO magazine aims to celebrate Afro-Caribbean and African culture with a view to enlightening future generations about the richness of African culture and history.  The magazine focuses primarily on showcasing black history, Afrocentric businesses and African writers, fashion designers and chefs.

We are honoured to be featured in the first edition of this excellent magazine and would like to thank the editors for giving us this opportunity to raise awareness of our work.

You can read the first edition of below.