Our History
Jannaty started as the mission of one woman, Majida Sayam, who wanted to help empower women in her community. We began as a humble community support group with a handful of women in a prayer room, to where we are now, a registered charity supporting more than approximately 1,000 services users in a year.
Read more about our history below.
1980
1989
1999
It was in the prayer hall of a local mosque where Majida volunteered and began organising activities for women. The first sewing and crochet classes were delivered to small groups of female worshippers.
In recognition of the work being delivered, Majida later became the first female trustee at the mosque.
In this period, working with Nottingham College, women in the sewing group began receiving certificates which enabled them to access employment and progress onto further training courses.
One of our success stories was seeing Layla set up a factory in Leicester where she produced garments made in the UK which were shipped internationally to be sold in Algeria.
Another success story is of Amina, who set up a factory in Libya making bridal dresses, veils and traditional clothing, which is still running to this day.
Our members from Afrah (Joy) club, Rajah, set up her own wedding planning business which continues to organise the special day for dozens of couples in London.
2010
2015
2018
Jannaty Women's Social Society formed as a charity and registered with the Charity Commission, with the support of Voluntary Action Islington.
Our trustees are women from the BAME community with lived experience of the issues we are trying to address.
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Jannaty began renting a training room at the Finsbury Park Trust from where we still operate today. Jannaty offered a range of activities including; sewing, crochet and handicraft classes, cooking club, ESOL, life skills coaching, exercise and yoga. We also began offering counselling and mental health services. In this time, Jannaty began forming relationships with other local organisations such as Healthwatch Islington, KMEWO, Finsbury Park Women’s Network and many more.
Jannaty is consulted by Islington Council, as part of the Finsbury Park Sewing sub-group in their bid to redevelop Andover community garages, with a vision to create affordable workspaces for the local community to benefit marginalised communities.
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2019
2021
Now
COVID-19 did not stop our operations. We moved our services online and took the opportunity to train community volunteers to become digital champions, supporting friends and neighbours from their homes. We converted our charity shop into a soup kitchen and distributed food packs and hygiene kits.
Jannaty's amazing sewing group rallied together with Finsbury Park Women's Network to produce 500 masks from their home. Volunteers also helped neighbours doing their shopping, collecting prescriptions, ordering medicines, and preparing frozen meals for the sick and vulnerable.
Jannaty began renting a studio at the Affordable Workspace on Durham Road to develop our community clothing brand, and Anaqaa Apparel is launched.
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We begin training our first trainee seamstress and produce a spring/summer collection to generate sales for the project.
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Our community clothing brand delivered several community events on Fonthill Road, a modest fashion show and held a stall at shopping festival in the Excel Centre where we met more than 20,000 visitors.
Jannaty continues to deliver all of our services from our training room at the Finsbury Park Trust on Seven Sister's Road.
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We offer local women skills training through our weekly sewing classes, handicraft classes, coaching and mentoring sessions.
Jannaty continues to work with local VCS organisations to disseminate information, conduct research, deliver collaborative projects to improve the health, wellbeing and opportunities of local women.
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