Walsall Windrush sisters is the beating heart of Walsall Black Sisters Collective who recently received a generous grant from Walsall Council for the upkeep of the Mayfield Centre on Wednesbury Road where they are based.
They have also been nomated for the Kings Award for Voluntary Service in Walsall and are due to celebrate 40 years of groundbreaking service to the people of Walsall next month. They began in humble origins in July 1986 and one of their original members was Maureen Lewis who is the Director and CEO of Walsall Black Sisters Collective.
On 22nd June it was National Windrush Day. The Windrush Generation help[ed build modern Britain:
Caring for patients in the NHS
Keeping public transport moving
Teaching in schools
Working in factories and industry
Building businesses and communities
Enriching British culture through music, food, faith, sports and the arts.
The Empire Windrush arrived in Tilbury Docks in June 1948, carrying passengers from the Caribbean who had answered Britain`s call to help rebuild the country after the Second World War.
Over the following decades thousands more travelled from across the Caribbean, making Britain their home and helping to shape the nation we know today.
Of the roughly 1.027 passengers on the Empire Windrush in 1948, 257 were women with 188 travelling entirely alone.
Walsall Windrush Sisters is an oral history project preserving the stories of Windrush women who made Walsall their home. It records their lived experiences, ensuring these voices and histories are documented and remembered.
Through interviews, research and creative exhibitions, the stories are preserved in a permenant digital archive.
The project is supported by the National Heritage Fund.
Maureen Lewis will be interviewed on The Ian Henery Show on Black Country Xtra.
