Flower-power brings Brummie smiles
Flower-power brings Brummie smiles
A Pakistani migrant has used flower power to overcome loneliness - and to brighten up her Birmingham neighbourhood.
“No flower grew in my area,” when Mah Jabeen Bano arrived in the city in 2003. Now, she’s winning horticultural and community awards.
Her first years here were achingly lonely. She felt isolated because of her lack of confidence in speaking English. She was fearful of travelling alone, having never done so in Pakistan. But she enrolled in an English class, then in several arts groups and when her two children were born she talked to mums on the school run.
Her confidence increased. And when she thought about the drabness of the area where she lived, she began to consider how she could spice up the public spaces around her. The answer was flowers.
“I wanted to do something for everybody in the community,” she says. “You cannot go wrong with flowers.
“I feel that flowers bring smiles to people's faces. I saw flowers in other areas, and thought, ‘Why don’t we have them?’”
She started with her own front garden, hoping that if she set an example, others would follow and brighten up their front gardens.
Slowly, her initiative has grown, she has broadened her sights and, with two other women, set up Khawateen (Womankind) Creative Minds, a community organisation that specialises in recycled materials.
Khawateen’s first artwork was, fittingly, The Flower Queen, a lavishly garlanded woman’s face. Its first public work, Rainbow Peacock, an equally colourful life-size creation made of paper, plastic and cloth, went on display at the Blakesley Hall Museum.
Even Covid-19 could not stop her: Bano started running classes online.
She joined others in creating the Hay Mills Art Trail, designed to bring the community together “and make our living space more welcoming through the creation of public artworks co-designed by residents and businesses.”
Making the trail drew widespread community involvement. The local Acock Green Men’s shed group made the painted wooden planters. Flowers were donated by Acocks Green Village in Bloom. Khawateen volunteers took on painting and planting. A burst of vibrant colour lit up the high street.
Voluntary labour and donations remain at the heart of the work (“We rely on community support with people willing to use their time to beautify their communities — everyone brings one thing or another”), but Bano and the group also learned how to apply for funds. Khawateen used a £1,000 National Lottery grant to finance an indoor beautification scheme that saw it donating free seed packets to residents to plant in their homes.
Khawateen received a certificate of commendation from the Heart of England in Bloom, a campaign that encourages local communities to care for their environment. Every subsequent year, the campaign has recognised Khawateen’s activities.
A supermarket donated compost, flowers and hanging baskets to support Khawateen’s work. The Royal Horticultural Society made a grant from a programme supporting community groups who use gardening to increase social connections. In 2023 Khawateen was part of a River Cole restoration project that included the transformation of public spaces in derelict areas of east Birmingham.
Flowers really have changed Bano’s life, and that of scores of neighbouring residents.
Reflecting on her two decades in the UK, Bano, now 44, recalls, “With time, I became very confident, a people-person. Because my background is coming from another country, I understand the problems that other women can face, and I tell them that as a new person in this country, don’t wait for anyone to come and save you; get out of your house, get involved, learn the culture, learn how the country works for Muslim Asian women, go to art classes, learn painting, gardening … these are the ways I try to guide them.”
And she advises: “Don't wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden.
“Don’t wait for anyone to rescue you, you are the only one who can rescue yourself. Trust yourself.”
Photo by Femi Amogunla