South Asian Heritage Month 2026 – Chai and Chat
On Wednesday, 22nd July, people we support and staff came together to celebrate South Asian Heritage Month at Head Office for a ‘Chai & Chat’ drop-in.
Aligning with this year’s theme ‘Unity in Diversity’, we explored what unites us and celebrated the diversity across South Asian communities, appreciating the beauty that diversity brings.
We greeted everyone with warm chai, freshly made by Thania, Multimedia Assistant, and Umayyah from our Tendering Team. As people settled in they enjoyed the enticing aroma, everyone tucked in to delicious South Asian treats and explored the informative facts that had been scattered across the room.
“The event was so fun and really good to understand a bit more about South Asian culture. The chai was delicious and you could really feel it was homemade,” said Sofia, Human Resources Officer.
Throughout the event we also welcomed Aisha, a talented henna artist, who created beautifully intricate designs for all who attended.
“The henna station was really brilliant idea. The level of detail the artist was able to create was very impressive, I’ve never seen henna like that before,” complimented Aaron, Digital Training Administrator.
To further celebrate diversity across South Asian communities, we ended the event with a quiz led by Labeeba, Service Development Administrator, who shared trivia related to South Asian cultures. This included fun facts, such as:
- Virat Kohli, an Indian international cricketer, has the same number of followers as Taylor Swift.
- The snow leopard is Afghanistan’s national animal.
- Famous philosopher Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-white person to win a Nobel Prize, which he won for Literature in 1913.
- 25% of the world’s population lives in South Asia.
A huge congratulations to colleague Ewan, one of our Internal Auditors, on winning first place.
Kizzy, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Engagement Lead, reflected on co-hosting the event: “It was so lovely to see colleagues and the people we support connecting, having meaningful conversations about South Asian culture, and sharing their first chai-tasting experience.
“We’re really proud to be able host events like these, and we always work closely with colleagues from the culture or community we’re celebrating to help make sure each event is authentic, meaningful and inclusive. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to another Chai & Chat in the future!”
Aaron from the Training Team, added: “A big thank you the EDI Team for putting together such a thoughtful, unique and well-organised event. It really felt like home.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! Thank you to everyone who made this enriching event a possibility. We hope to see you at our celebrations next year.