Report transcript in: Bangladesh Association - Bristol Community Resilience Fund

Please Report the Errrors?

Good

afternoon.

Can you state your name and

the community interest company that you're

uh in charge of?

Good afternoon.

Uh,

I'm Mohammad Ainul Islam.

I'm the president of Bangladesh Association Bristol and Bath

in Bristol.

Excellent,

brilliant.

And um.

So I,

I can hear them working now.

Yeah.

Uh,

so you applied for the Community resilience fund,

you were successful in being allocated a portion of funding,

which is brilliant.

So what have you decided to spend the money on?

Well,

great.

Thank you very much for asking that question.

Um,

to,

after lockdown,

um,

when I was elected as the President of Bangladesh Association,

The building,

uh,

partly,

I will show you,

wasn't,

um,

you know,

a usable.

Part of it,

like,

you know,

cannot be used,

and,

um,

upstairs was really cramped,

and it wasn't fit for the purpose.

Uh,

the lighting wasn't good,

uh,

health and safety wasn't,

um,

up to the standard,

roof was leaking,

and there was many other issues,

uh.

electric system,

uh,

you know,

the gas and everything was kind of crammed in one area.

It's an organised mess.

we decided to apply for the CRF funding

to having,

uh,

in our idea in my mind

or our mind that we're going to

do like,

you know,

kind of renovation.

And thankfully,

uh,

we received the grant,

we were successful to get that fund.

And uh we have implementing

all of this work uh what we have planned and or um gave our

dream idea

project outline what we would like to do

with our money.

OK,

I can see behind you

a lot of work's going on.

Uh,

we could even hear a,

there's a guy downstairs show you,

um,

that was um.

Old main entrance that will be

fire exit now.

So you've got a new fire door,

brilliant fire door.

Um,

there wasn't like,

you know,

uh,

fire

system in place,

so all are in the place now.

We had to take it out,

um,

support wall,

and we needed to put

metals into the place,

one up here,

and then we need to take out the wall here.

So there is another one.

This building is a Victorian,

typical Victorian building,

and uh

you will see there's one step here and there's another step.

the building was actually structurally in two levels.

And if you go on the roof,

you'll see

similarly

the main roof and there is like a drop down flat roof

and there's another the heap of the back of this building.

there were lots of issues

with the dump issue

we needed to address that we didn't know before we opened up the project.

So,

and there was some,

um,

uh,

extraordinary things I would say.

The roof actually was normally supported by the beam,

but somehow in this building,

It was sitting.

The support was sitting on the wall.

So when we removed the wall from here,

we needed to put that RJS to support the roof.

there were lots of other issues.

Um,

the flooring

in our mind,

it was,

we can say

some of the floor,

part of it,

just for the cost saving

exercise.

But

eventually,

um,

it was ruined and we needed to

get it out,

all of it.

And,

um,

you know,

it looks nice.

It's like a one floor of the building

and

it looks nice on the wall as well.

Before we move out,

switch the

light off here,

um,

and just to show you something.

If it's a dark,

rainy

day outside,

and we say like,

you know,

we will take all the

green effect on the building.

So we installed some sun tunnel

on a sunny day,

uh,

it will be like,

you know,

flooding natural light,

so we don't need to use the electricity.

And that will be like,

you know,

less CO2.

Uh,

released from the building and we try in our project time

to make it

as like,

you know,

efficient,

the

electric efficient,

gas efficient,

the heating efficient as well.

All these things will be costing money for the long run

in the,

uh,

you know,

in the future.

Uh,

we also,

um,

retained

some of the

character

window.

Uh,

it's,

um,

you know,

uh,

very,

uh,

elegant looks like door frame,

you know,

wooden frame.

And uh it looks nice on it.

Yeah.

Is this what you were telling me about,

you said that

this was a wall and now you've put a window in or is that downstairs?

That's in downstairs so we're gonna walk in and walk

with you

downstairs.

OK,

excellent.

Which is great,

so you've got.

So that's a bathroom there,

yes,

um,

and that there will be another,

uh,

extra storage

for the cleaning material,

um,

vacuum cleaner,

uh,

things like that.

And then

all the walls,

um,

was like,

you know,

um,

really

old wood chip

and uh

so it's all like scraped off and

re-schemmed

and plastered and it looks nice.

It's like,

you know,

fresh breath of life here brilliant.

you walk

here,

do you play?

Um,

oh yes,

I'm not good in football,

but,

um,

I'm,

uh,

I play cricket.

I was a founder secretary

for Bristol Banamji Cricket Club in North Somosa Cricket League.

I played,

um,

78 years.

We did win the Sunday Premier League.

And uh

I said

I've done my bit.

I hand over to the new

fresh

blood young people,

and they're still running out.

That's brilliant.

That's excellent.

What I would like to show in this corner here

that was a kind of

dead space.

So idea in our mind that we might,

uh,

you know,

create a hot desk

or we might use a.

Uh,

storage area,

but as you know,

um,

more kind of digital world we are,

um,

moved in

and,

um,

less kind of if you

put like a shelf paper,

it's all just like built up on it and uh

there's no usage of it

and

behind here

was the most iconic like,

you know,

work,

um,

we undertook.

We installed a

lift here.

Fantastic.

And the whole exercise of that funding,

um,

we wanted

to make the building more accessible to people,

people living longer,

lots of people are on the wheelchair,

and again,

uh,

many disability.

are not visible.

All the disabled people are not on the wheelchair,

they cannot climb up the stairs,

and there are many,

many growing

elderly people within the community.

that would be like a huge welcoming,

uh,

for them to this lift.

And then shall we

go downstairs in the lift?

Yeah,

sure.

And uh

still got the uh cellophane on it

because um you know when they're working,

I didn't want it to get dust and

ruined the

uh the nice look of it.

I remember when I got my phone,

it had cellophane on it.

I didn't take it off for ages until it came off,

so yeah,

nice.

So.

Here we are landing.

And downstairs.

Thank you.

This was um

kind of a dead space,

no use of,

anything,

and uh we created the landing area here,

uh,

installed

double glazing

main entrance door

and uh

new

electric switchboard.

Uh,

fuse board,

everything like in a new cabling,

everything was like in a renewed,

uh,

electrical,

uh,

sense.

And you can see

there is a new,

there wasn't a new window,

so we created a new window

so that,

um,

the natural light coming in.

So was that brick before it was brick brick before,

brick before,

and you can see there's still like a lots of

building materials left.

This was,

uh,

wasn't used at all before,

but what is in our mind

is 2nd room,

2nd office.

Uh,

we might,

uh,

look out for charity,

you know,

charity might look out for the renting out,

if anybody want to rent out,

because what we would like to achieve

to make the charity,

um,

self-sufficient,

so they do not need to like rely on,

like,

you know,

funding,

uh,

here and there.

Obviously,

there will be projects we'll be creating.

Different types of activities will be running.

need more space.

The workforce needs to deliver it.

So that will be a nice second office for them

to work in here.

This area

before,

it was a dead space,

no usage of whatsoever.

There wasn't any

heating installed,

the electric wasn't properly done.

And behind you here,

this window was kind of half of the window.

It's like a really

narrow window.

There wasn't any natural light was coming into the area.

So we have created like a bigger window

and natural light coming in.

Excellent.

And this will be the main

workstation

for the staff,

nice big room.

And we are looking out

to buy,

you know,

those are like really horrible,

so we're going to be

chucking away,

looking out for some donation,

and maybe we'll be looking out some like,

you know,

corporate those who like renew their furniture,

some of the charitable

things,

that will look nice once it's done

and that's a nice really office room

and

this will be here.

Landing area for the

people to wait.

We'll put some furniture in here

and people will be waiting

and that will be a waiting,

nice waiting area.

And

as we go out here.

That was,

uh,

fire exit before

and uh we needed to a lots of like work to be done because

behind the wall charity rent out a restaurant,

a portion of the building,

front of the building,

and their gas connection and electric connection run through those,

um,

you know,

boxes,

so,

uh,

we needed to be very careful,

uh,

when we were opening all the,

uh,

building work.

And uh

you can see like you know project is going on.

We are almost um

uh coming

to the final phase of it.

Um,

we had lots of issues when we applied for the grants,

we was granted,

but then again we had some complication with the governance side of it.

Uh,

how,

um,

the charity,

charity as a registered charity,

we were a limited company

or,

uh,

you know,

um,

you know,

where the

liability for the

trustee myself or the,

you know,

charity management for like myself

do not have a limited,

um,

you know,

guarantee.

If anything was gone wrong,

we would have been liable personally.

So there was lots of risk element we needed to.

Uh,

analyse and

I have to like give

full credit to

Bristol City Council CRF

funding Community Resilience Fund

team.

Um,

I had

probably the most um

patience,

kind.

Uh,

tolerable,

uh,

officers have been working,

particularly,

uh,

Robin and Maurice,

uh,

um,

Laura Morris,

and I've been working and recently,

and,

and the team member,

uh,

Bryony,

uh,

it's been

fantastic and phenomenal to work with them.

Then,

uh,

we needed to,

for the safety for the charity management,

BSWN stepped in.

And they were kind of guarantor

or the recipients of the fund.

Uh,

Bristol City Council was releasing to the fund

to the BSWN.

And

BSW went to Bangladesh Association.

We were weekly,

uh,

was sending the

invoices to them.

What the work was carried out.

we sent the invoice to the BSWN

and BSWN released the fund or the bill to the builder.

So 3,

it would have been,

uh,

council to the Bangladesh Association,

but because of the governance issue.

The council released the fund to the BSWN

and,

uh,

big,

huge thanks to the management and the staff of the BSWN.

Uh,

they did not charge any of their officers' time,

management,

admin costs,

nothing whatsoever.

That was kindly

managed and processed.

All of it has been very,

very efficient.

And,

uh,

I'd like to thank,

uh,

on behalf of the whole team of Bangladesh Association,

and the management of PSWN

and especially,

uh,

Sona Mahtani

and,

uh,

Mina

and the Merck,

the finance team.

They were amazing

to deliver this project.

Without these key people.

Uh,

I didn't know what I would,

I would have been done.

Oh,

that's fantastic.

It's really,

I've,

I've heard lots of good things about the CRF team,

Robin,

Laura,

um,

and,

uh,

Lauren as well,

and,

um,

I spoke to Sonia the other day.

Um,

she seems to really know her stuff,

so I'm,

I'm so happy that you are happy with

BSWN and,

um,

uh,

CRF team.

Um,

so just continuing,

uh,

you might have touched on some of these,

so,

um,

er,

what difference has this funding made to the staff that work here

and the community,

the wider community?

I would like to break it down into two parts.

Um,

one for the,

uh,

people who

work or in the future who will be working.

Uh,

it is a very nice,

friendly,

welcoming environment

being created for the people.

And before,

it was really,

really not a nice place to work.

And as you know,

people work in those kind of sector for the hurts.

If we do not have hubs for serving the people,

there's not a lot of money,

you know,

people

earn as an employee of those charitable organisations.

So I'm glad with that funding,

we managed to give a nice,

friendly,

welcoming.

Uh,

working environment

and thanks again to the CRF,

um,

you know,

uh,

funding

give out a charity like us in the city

and bringing all the dead

charitable organisation or

organisation alive,

you know,

that's brilliant.

Excellent.

And second part of it,

the people that,

you know,

those who will be receiving the service from the organisation.

In our community,

particularly after the lockdown and the COVID-19,

and I didn't know

many people probably know or don't.

Bangladeshi community was the worst affected community in the whole UK,

and there's a growing number of the elderly people who are the wheelchair users,

and

we've seen,

we have a lift,

and the whole project is to make

the improvement,

the accessibility.

Uh,

we didn't have any proper toilet,

let alone having the disabled access toilet.

So now we have

a fully accessible toilet.

If I may show you.

Yeah,

sure.

Uh,

we'll walk,

um,

to the toilet area.

Uh,

which is the

underwear steel.

Um,

Uh,

that needed to open it up

and nice,

uh,

waterproof,

uh,

floor,

and some of the work started,

but mostly still,

um,

needs to be done.

Uh,

you can see the,

uh,

you know,

um,

if anybody,

um,

needed for emergency,

and there is a,

uh,

you know,

recessed

panel over the door

here.

And uh I can show you that rubber handle

waiting to be

fitted nearby the toilet.

OK.

So,

This is the fully accessible toilet

for the wheelchair users,

and,

uh,

we have,

um,

uh,

I need to be very careful here.

We have,

uh,

you know,

one of the best eco-friendly,

the boiler,

uh,

you know,

to,

which is like,

you know,

very,

um,

uh,

energy efficient,

and,

um,

the work surface,

and

All the cabinet,

everything was like it was a complete shell here and everything was recreated.

new

fresh kitchen

functioning kitchen,

uh,

fully accessible disabled toilet,

and then

a nice

friendly welcoming,

uh,

office rooms

and,

uh,

which charity will be looking um

to one

perhaps like we can let out and,

um,

you know,

raise,

um,

fund,

uh,

or the,

you know,

grant for the charity.

How did you find out about the

application process for the

um community resilience fund?

What I like the application process this time,

instead of like you know submitting a full big application,

and then you will have a short letter,

uh,

you know,

we are sorry,

we,

we don't have enough fund,

you know,

all this thing,

but

they just like,

you know,

give

you the interest,

form of interest

and um

project outline.

And then if they say like,

you know,

we like your project,

then we needed to do the full application.

So you knowing you're already on board

and that you are

in a third sector,

voluntary sector,

there is a serious lack of,

uh,

you know,

those,

uh,

making application.

Um,

and,

uh,

grant related application,

um,

there is not many people around,

and we are charity volunteers,

and we do struggle about that,

but those kind of process,

I would say like,

you know,

it was brilliant,

and that council to council and the other funding,

um.

Uh,

organisations,

those who give out the fund,

they should

adopt that.

Yeah,

it,

it might be

obvious because I can see all the work you're doing,

but what made you apply specifically for the CRF grant or fund?

The key

was to apply to make this building accessible.

With a growing number of the people,

wheelchair users,

and

it is this building sits in the stand of the community,

iconic Saint Mark's Road,

and everything community related,

all the community here,

uh,

BME community,

white community,

newly arrived community,

everyone come here.

it is an iconic

location.

And Bangladesh centre

is a building belong to the commun Bangladeshi community.

They own the building

and it's an iconic in that sense for the community to live in the Bristol,

Bath and West country.

Excellent.

Um,

so what has impacted the delivery of your project,

so from filling out

the application form,

then receiving the funding to delivering the upgrades

and changes,

have you

had any setbacks or any problems or?

Yeah,

when we started,

um,

once we um submitted the application,

everything was granted.

The major setback was the governance issue.

Luckily,

luckily and thankfully,

BSWN stepped in

and they undertook,

uh,

they received the fund on our behalf

as a limited company

and to,

uh,

do the risk management for the management

committee member of the Bangladesh Association here.

to resolve that,

we needed a bit of time and we needed a bit of extension,

uh,

of the project life.

And luckily,

um,

you know,

uh,

we worked with the council and the officer,

uh,

from the CRF team understood

the situation very well.

And,

and at the end of the day,

these are the very,

uh,

you know,

I'm privileged to work with such a,

uh,

knowledgeable in their area.

And understand how

does it impact.

So that was,

um,

even though it was a problematic

time,

but because of the people's skills and knowledge and you know,

everyone was willing to accommodate everything,

it was amazing to work with these people.

If I need to,

I don't want to be

in this job again,

but if I want to do it again.

Uh,

if we're given another chance,

I'd love to work with this group of people

from the CRF team,

from the BSWN.

Amazing.

Excellent.

Um,

so have your future

plans changed now since receiving this grant and,

and starting the work that you've started?

I haven't mentioned one

important element of it.

Obviously we were given 97,140,

and

we,

because of the timing,

um,

the governance issue,

project was delayed

about a year.

In the meantime,

the cost of everything gone up,

we need to get the revised quotation received

and then like,

you know,

eventually

we had.

Um,

you know,

the final court was agreed and,

uh,

you know,

all of it done.

In an old building,

when you start working,

you start pulling one thing,

10 things will be coming with you.

And we

finally now today,

from the beginning of the project to now,

about 25,000 pounds

extra work was,

you know,

um,

what would be the word?

I didn't know,

not created like,

you know.

Emerged

from like,

you know,

nasty surprise,

we needed to address

things like RGS upstairs,

things like some of the wall was,

uh,

you know,

missing,

needed to do,

uh,

some of the window

dump issue,

and the major issue when we'll go outside,

you will see on the roof

that was like,

you know,

big things,

and we needed to find another $200,000 to 25,000 pounds.

And we didn't have any.

I had an amazing accounting firm I work with,

and because of the charity

and the accessibility issue,

government had a clause,

and you can save those money.

And thanks to Robin and Laura,

they organised during the process of the application,

they have organised lots of workshops and seminars which we attend.

And uh other people like in a big organisation who delivered such project before,

what was their experience.

So we went those kind of meetings and training,

uh,

whatever you call,

and that was like in my opinion.

And the amazing work.

I would say good practise.

Those who delivered

and have the experience,

get them together,

which they did.

We learned.

I'd love to,

like,

you know,

in the future,

I want to pass on my knowledge.

That accounting firm worked through with the HMRC

and saved our skin,

creating a saving our VAT of 20,000 pounds,

and that was.

Those extra uh work we needed to do,

we uh funded that.

That's brilliant.

That's really good.

Um,

if you hadn't received the grant,

where

would your

organisation be?

What would you have done?

There wouldn't be any organisation.

It would have been,

it would have been,

it's simple.

This building was,

uh,

we was,

uh,

using a part of the building.

And it wasn't welcoming at all.

It wasn't

the heating wasn't there,

and we was running some,

you know,

welcoming space upstairs.

Only part of it was like,

you know,

heating,

electricity,

and

Uh,

basic need was available,

but now

thankfully with that fund,

we have the whole building being renovated.

It's going to be secured at least I would say like in the next 2025 years,

and I'm hoping

that extra space,

open up space and the extra office room.

be like,

you know,

a new way to generate

fund for the charity by letting out to the community.

And also,

the community,

uh,

from the local area,

uh,

all sorts of,

you know,

all kinds of community

that can,

if they want to use the building,

it's open for them.

Yes,

that's good.

Uh,

so time to dream a little bit now.

If money was no object,

where would your priority

be for the future?

Where would you like to take this

organisation?

So just imagine like someone gave you

10 billion,

but where would you like to take this?

Yeah,

we have 10 billion.

But um,

yeah,

as you say,

like,

you know,

if we,

if the money wasn't an object.

If that building I could have bought the next door,

as I said,

like,

you know,

this is an iconic location,

about 15 to 20,000 Bangladeshi people

own this community centre,

the building.

the money wasn't an object,

we'd love to make it a bit bigger.

The downstairs within the Bangladeshi community,

badminton

is a very,

very popular game.

We'd love to have it like in a sports hall.

And also

make it like in a hall downstairs,

like in a big sports hall

where people can

come together,

community can come together,

enjoy the game,

and they have like,

you know,

uh,

nationwide,

every 2 or 3 months,

they have like in a tournament.

People come from all over the UK

and it's kind of like in a league system.

So that would have been like,

you know,

a big hall to accommodate to them.

Upstairs,

since in Bangladesh,

you know,

in Bangladeshi wedding ceremony is a big one.

When you say big one,

I'm talking about 500 people,

guests

in a small number,

70 800 people.

If we had it like in a bigger hall,

if we had a bigger

Uh,

you know,

the upstairs,

we could have like,

you know,

uh,

created

a whole room

where people can

hold their,

you know,

wedding ceremony,

and that would have been easily generating

a good

income for the charity

and you know all around the year.

Was there anything different or unique about the resilience fund application

or the process compared with other funding opportunities?

I suppose

the initial interest form,

you know,

to show the expression of interest for the funding,

that was the key.

And that was made us to apply

because knowing like,

you know,

we don't we have limited capacity

within the organisation,

so we utilise that

and then once we knew we're going to be like you know going to the next level,

then uh you know we um

took the help and support from other organisations who have like lots of

capacity building

programme

like BS in our case

we had a BSWN.

And um,

you know,

um,

uh,

I've been working,

uh,

one of the development officer,

uh,

Natalie,

um,

she's been amazing,

uh,

along with other

members.

Excellent.

Um,

and last question,

uh,

lastly,

how do you feel about the Community Resilience Fund?

Has it met your expectations and would you apply again if

the opportunity arose?

The question you said,

did they meet my expectation?

Yes.

I am 200% happy to work with the team,

I did work.

If I have another opportunity,

definitely I'll go ahead

and apply the

fund again,

definitely.

Just before we go,

shall I just lead you to the outside

and give you

the biggest work is going on on the roof.

We haven't covered that.

Shall we just go and,

of course,

of course.

Let's see,

the door is open this way.

We need to walk

that way to that to that door.

Well,

actually,

my last question is,

is there anything else you would like to

show me,

mention,

um,

so that's absolutely fine.

I'd love to show you that.

Oh gosh,

it's raining now,

and

you gonna be OK with it?

Yeah.

I want you

to see,

show the,

you know,

building

in front of me.

The scaffolding

and the roof we cannot see,

but I have some footage and picture.

We've got some footage we can show you

and we'll be rendering,

painting the outside wall

and rendering the front of it.

Front is like a very damaged and need to

get it done.

OK,

excellent.

Uh,

anything else you'd like to add?

I think we covered most the most part of it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

And thank you

BSWN.

Thank you CRF team.

Thank you everyone.

Thank you.

Alright,

thank you.

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Posted By

Author

LaurenWT

Post date

10/11/2025