Tuesday 27-02-2018 - 15:28

We spoke with Aminah Gaddah (second year Law), Treasure of the Middle Eastern and North African Society (MENA) to find out more about how the society are bringing a “splash of culture” to The Union.

 

Tell us a little bit about the society

“MENA stands for Middle Eastern and North African society, and we hold different events. We’ve held our games night, we’ve held ladies night, lots of different things to bring different people from the Middle East and North Africa together. It’s sort of a cultural boost and it’s not just for people from the Middle East or North Africa – it’s for everyone. We have lots of people come from different cultures and backgrounds.”

You have a big Cultural Festival happening soon in The Union – tell us more.

“So the Cultural Festival will be happening on the 9 March – that’s a Friday. The idea behind it was going back to that cultural boost. Everyone has a cultural background and is really proud of it to a certain extent, and I think it’s something that colours your day, like a rainbow. It makes you that bit different. For us, it’s our food, our music, our traditions and the event is really bringing that all to life. So we’re hoping to have a fashion show from both our society and the African Caribbean society, and show off our clothes. Some people think that the Middle East is just one thing, but what’s amazing is that every single one of these countries has different cultures, traditions and outfits and we’d like to show that. There’ll be some music performances and a dance show from us and hopefully the African Caribbean society will do something similar too. It’s a splash of culture and it’s open to everyone. The more people we have that come down, understand and hopefully like and know more about our culture and society will be amazing.”

Anything else planned for the rest of the year?

“This a big event and we’ll try and perfect this. As a society I think we'd like to have something near the end of term, maybe a dinner or perhaps another games night to say farewell to our leaving students.”

 

What would you say to anyone who wanted to come and get involved with MENA?

“Everyone’s welcome – we’re not exclusive to Middle Eastern and North African students. We’re open to everyone. Come in and get to know us, we’re not a scary bunch. We’re friendly and you’ll meet people that you’ll see around university and think you wouldn’t know them – its nice and you’ll talk to loads of different people. There are people who I might never have met in my life and now we’re really good friends.”

 

Find out more about MENA and the African Caribbean Society's event here.

Check out MENA's page and Facebook to find out more about the society.

Want to get involved?  You can see all our clubs and societies here, or get in touch with the Opportunities Office.

W: www.theunionmmu.org/opportunities

E: s.u.societies@mmu.ac.uk