Inter Multi Faith Calendar 2010 - 2011 Culture Diversity Equality

The New Equality Bill was published on 27 April 2009 and is being used to strengthen protection, advance equality and simplify the law. The Equality Bill places a new duty on public bodies.

It will bring together existing duties and extend to them to gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief.

Reference to "Religious and Belief or lack of religious belief" is a broad one. It includes Baha'ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Rastafarian and Zoroastrianism.

Faith Training For Your Organisation
* Does your organisation deliver services to people of different faiths?
* Do you work in partnership with religious organisations?
* Are you an employer of a religiously diverse workforce?
* Hatred against persons on religious grounds?
* Do you want to start an inter-faith project and want some guidance?
* Are there religious tensions in your area of work which you want to reduce?

Knowledge about Local Community is an essential. To understand their history, literature, and art, and can be helpful in broadening one’s cultural horizons and in deepening one’s insight into the complexities of past and present.

Knowledge about religions and beliefs can reinforce appreciation of the importance of respect for everyone’s right to freedom of religion or belief, foster democratic citizenship, promote understanding of societal diversity and, at the same time, enhance social cohesion.

Our eBooks are referenced by, financial institutions, logistics companies, government agencies, NGOs and in the education sector.

Awareness of world religions including their cultural, history, philosophy and political context. Flip through the pages with the click of a mouse and interact, Zoom-in on articles for more detail or view in text-mode.

Search through the entire edition of 70 pages in A3 Size. View the eBook in the office, meetings or at home. For all major Faiths Information in one ebook.

Multi-faith event calendar - It should be remembered that many religious festivals are based on the lunar and / or solar calendars, or are on fixed dates which change with the common calendar year.

It is good practice for any organisations to have, or arrange access to, an up-to-date multi-faith event calendar available for planning purposes. Faiths will always be a work in progress, intended to be continually stretched upon with new and updated material.

NHS Missed Appointments. When the outpatients department of an NHS trust examined missed appointments, it found that patients from ethnic minorities were more likely to miss their appointments on certain dates.

A closer look at the information showed that many of these missed appointments were on holy days or festivals (for example during Eid, Greek Easter, Diwali, or on St Patrick’s Day). To make sure that staff responsible for making appointments knew when those days fell, the outpatients department used a multi-faith and multi-ethnic calendar on its computer system.

Religious Festivals and Leave - Show sensitivity to faith communities’ needs during festivals. If you employ a large number of people from a particular faith community you will need to plan ahead (e.g. arranging for cover, setting up a rota system for allocating leave etc.) as many people from that faith community will ask for leave at the same time.

Community cohesion in education sector - To infuse a culture of peace all educational systems throughout the world, we need to develop the capacities, in teachers and learners. The need for such education will continue to grow as different cultures and identities interact with each other through travel, commerce, media or migration.

Engagement and extended services - Providing means for children and young people and their families and communities to interact with people from different backgrounds and build positive relationships including links with different schools, delivering extended services – letting the outside world into the school environment, the school as a facility for local people, responding to local needs, participation from the wider community and services that build positive interaction and achievement for all groups

When Organising an Events – Some Guideline
• Make sure it is on a day, which most members of the community can attend. (Not a religious celebration day)
• Make sure it is at a time that members of the community invited can attend eg taxi drivers, restaurant owners etc.
• If an event has to be organised during a period of religious observance make the reasons clear and if necessary provide a quite room for prayers.
• Use local venues with good access via local transport.
• Contact local religious leaders, community projects, voluntary groups and other contacts.
• If an open event publicise it in local shops were the communities regularly use.
• If an open event invite all family members.
• Develop good relationships with community centres or where community groups meet.
• If invitation only events make sure you invite all the relevant members of the community.
• If lunch is provided make sure it caters for the needs of all the communities attending eg Halal food, Vegetarian etc. Also alongside teas and coffees ensure there is water and juice available.