From Djembes To Bollywood, Care Home Celebrates Team’s Cultural Diversity

Residents at a Hampshire dementia care home have enjoyed learning a little more about their carers’ backgrounds on two days devoted to celebrating cultural diversity.

More than a dozen team members at Colten Care’s St Catherines View in Winchester donned traditional national dress from their Asian and African homelands to light up the festive parties.

Colleagues representing countries such as South Africa, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines led the way with music, dancing, national costumes and traditional foods.

As well as learning basic greetings in Swahili, Tamil, Nepali and other languages, residents and relatives went hands-on and played African djembe drums and tried out Bollywood-style dance moves.

Companionship Team Leader Laura Sheldrake said:
“On both days, the colour, the costumes, the music and the array of culinary delights on show were all amazing.”

“Our residents absolutely loved these experiences. Both days just had so much laughter and good cheer.”

For part of each day, residents and staff got together and looked at different national flags and discussed the locations of countries across the African and Asian continents.

The opportunity to join in and dance to traditional Indian music particularly energised resident Nalini Bhagwat.

Although born in Kenya, Nalini spent much of her childhood in the state of Maharashtra in western India.

She learned classical Indian dancing as a young girl and was good enough to be invited to perform in front of native Marathi aristocracy.

St Catherines View Home Manager Vanda Baker said:
“As our team is so multicultural, we thought it would be a great idea to get together with residents and share a flavour of everyone’s backgrounds.”

“Having a team drawn from so many places enables us to share experiences, skills and knowledge that help support each other and enrich our workplace. That in turn strengthens our care of residents and their families.”