BEECH Hall Day Centre in Andersonstown put on a highly successful festival of culture and diversity – much to the delight of its service users.
The centre is one of a range of day support services provided by Belfast Trust. Beech Hall provides day support for adults with physical and sensory disabilities who live in West Belfast and who are between the ages of 18 and 65.
The event saw a range of multicultural themes celebrated each day, including Estonian, Bollywood, Mexican Art, Chinese Lion and African.
Eamonn McErlane, Service Manager, explained: "We had an idea to have a week-long Mela-type event at the day centre with different themes each day for the benefit of the service users.
"Many of our service users have physical, health and sensory disability needs and aren’t able to attend big events so we wanted to bring it to them.
"It went down fantastically well. Everyone really embraced all the different cultures."
Stephanie Codd, Beech Hall Day Centre Manager, added: "The day centre is a lifeline for our service users. Many have been coming here for years.
"We are lucky to have service users and staff from different cultural backgrounds so the week was all about celebrating that diversity and the richness it brings to Belfast Trust."
