Keeping Faith: A How To Guide

How can we respond to suffering without being overwhelmed by it? Can kindness be a catalyst for change? And how do we keep faith in kindness in today’s world, which all too often feels far from kind?

In this episode, we hear from Suryagupta Dharmacharini – chair of the London Buddhist Centre – who shares her journey to Buddhism and to leadership, and how she has kept faith in herself and her community along the way. 

We reflect on the role of kindness in a world grappling with armed conflict, far right rhetoric and divided communities. Suryagupta argues that kind does not mean weak, but offers us a way to see the world differently as well as a vital reminder of our interdependence. 

Find out more about the work of the London Buddhist Centre here. 

Read more about WIN’s book ‘Keeping Faith: 20 Years of Women’s Interfaith Network’ here. 

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

Content Warning – This episode includes personal stories of miscarriage, birth trauma and health inequalities. Please listen with care and access support if you need it via the links below. 

What does it look like to keep faith in healthcare while still challenging systemic inequalities? Can we channel our anger into our activism without letting it consume us? And how are women building their own safe spaces to share their struggles with menstrual and maternal health?

In this episode, we spoke to Neelam Heera-Shergill, Founder and CEO of Cysters UK: a community-led charity tackling inequalities in menstrual, maternal and mental healthcare through education and advocacy. Neelam reflects on how her own search for support in her struggles with chronic illness and birth trauma has led her to build safe spaces for others on similar journeys, from Cysters’ origin story to the Summer 2025 launch of the Maternity Justice Network. 

Find out more about the work of Cysters UK. 

Watch highlights from the launch event of Maternity Justice Network. 

Follow Neelam on Instagram and LinkedIn. 

If you are affected by the issues discussed in this episode, support is available:

• Miscarriage Association
• Tommy's 
• Maternal Mental Health Alliance
• PANDAS

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

Can harnessing our creativity become its own act of resistance? What does it mean to keep faith in justice in unjust times? And can one person really make a meaningful difference?

This week, WIN is launching our new book of women’s writing, ‘Keeping Faith: 20 Years of Women's Interfaith Network’, a collection of essays reflecting on how we keep faith in what matters to us in a world where faith feels hard to find. Our authors include faith leaders, artists, activists, leaders from across the voluntary and community sector, members of our WIN community, and voices of all faiths and no faith. This book celebrates 20 years of Women's Interfaith Network at a time where interfaith work feels more vital than ever before.

In this episode, you’ll hear extracts and short interviews from four of our authors – zine artist Ioana Simion (Artizine UK), Rabbi Daisy Bogod, Reverend Helen Burnett, and Josephine Namusisi Riley from Citizens UK's Parent Action - who share their insights on Keeping Faith in Justice, Keeping Faith in Creativity, Keeping Faith in Activism and Keeping Faith in Community.

• Find out more about Keeping Faith: 20 Years of Women's Interfaith Network
• Get your own copy by emailing [email protected]

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

Content Warning – This episode references Gender-Based Violence, including sexual abuse, as well as mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and disordered eating. Please listen with care.

How has the war in Ukraine created a ‘gender crisis’ for Ukranian communities, both at home and those displaced around the world? What does it mean to keep faith in humanitarianism when a new political administration can transform the sector overnight? And what lessons can we learn about hope and resilience from the stories of women on the frontlines of the humanitarian response?

In this episode, we spoke to Mariia Korolchuk, who transitioned into the humanitarian sector after she was displaced to Romania from her home in Ukraine in 2022. Mariia, who now works as Vice President of the Malva Association – a hub for the Ukranian community in Bucharest – has worked for multiple NGOS over the last 3 years, with a particular focus on tackling gender-based violence and empowering women and girls. This is a raw, moving discussion of the realities of long-term conflict and displacement, as well as how women working on the frontlines of these crises continue to keep faith together.

• Cook Mariia's recipe for dranyki
• Find out more about how Mariia and her humanitarian colleagues are helping displaced Ukranian women access reproductive healthcare
• Read more about WIN's Food and Friendship project

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

How can art help us tell important stories that all too often go unheard? What would it look like to truly value and prioritise creativity in our communities? And how do we keep faith in welcome for migrants and refugees, against the backdrop of hostile and divisive rhetoric?

In this episode, we spoke to multi-disciplinary artist Ada Jusic, the illustrator behind the graphic novel The Power of Welcome: bringing to life her own journey from Bosnia to the UK as a young child alongside the stories of her co-authors from Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. We discuss the importance of age-appropriate conversations about migration with children and young people in a world of widespread misinformation, as well as how she brings her life-long passion for artistic self-expression into the community.

• Follow Ada on Instagram or X
• Find out more about Ada's work on her website
• Read Ada's article for Barbed Wire Fever: To Be Heard is To Be Loved

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

How do we bridge the gap between the world as it is and the world as we believe it should be? Can the arts help communities move through trauma to work for social change? And after a year of asking women from across communities what keeping faith means to them, how are we keeping faith ourselves in 2025?

In the last episode of this series of Keeping Faith: A How To Guide, we spoke to Community Organiser Paulina Tamborrel, Head of Migrant and Refugee Organising at Citizens UK and Trustee at arts non-profit Creating Ground. Our conversation ranged from the lasting legacy of the Summer 2024 riots, how Paulina’s own migration journey shapes her approach as an organiser and what it means to ‘keep faith’ as someone working with communities now bearing the brunt of divisive rhetoric.

Follow Paulina on LinkedIn or X

Keep up with Citizens UK's latest campaigns on Facebook, Instagram and X. 

Find out more about the Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK (CLAUK) and Citizens UK's project with Kings College London

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of gender-based violence, including femicide. Please listen with care.  

How did the pandemic shine new light on the role of faith and interfaith groups in the voluntary sector? What does it mean to have ‘intersectional’ conversations about women’s safety? Can looking back at periods of tension and division from our past give us hope to challenge hate in our present?

In this special episode for International Women’s Day, we spoke to London’s Deputy Mayor for Communities and Social Justice Dr. Debbie Weekes-Bernard, who shares her journey from the charity sector to City Hall, her first-hand experience of how women are driving interfaith dialogue in the capital, and what it means to ‘keep faith’ amidst the rise of the far-right. 

Follow Dr. Debbie Weekes-Bernard on LinkedIn, X and Instagram.

Read more about the Loved and Wanted Campaign and London’s Violence Reduction Unit. 

Find out more about Women’s Interfaith Network’s grassroots women's groups and our wide-ranging projects. 

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

In our bonus episodes, we speak to women from our Women's Interfaith Network (WIN) community to share their stories and give their own unique perspectives on keeping faith. 

In our sixth bonus episode, Foujan Jenner, from WIN’s Barnet group shares her journey into interfaith work, the difference between tolerating and celebrating our differences, and what ‘keeping faith’ means to her. 

Learn more about interfaith work in Barnet through Barnet Multi Faith Forum.

Find out more about WIN's grassroots women's groups and our wide-ranging projects.
Read our origin story here.

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

What do young activists want us to know about the issues that matter to them? What impact is systemic inequality having on their lives and communities? How do we all keep faith in the future, while also creating spaces to voice our fears and uncertainty?

In this episode, we speak to Dianne Danquah – a Young Equality Campaigner with The Equality Trust and one of the voices behind their Reconstructing the Social Contract project - who shares her journey into activism, what meaningful representation means to her, and how she finds a way to keep faith in the future when faith feels hard to find. 

You can find out more about the Young Equality Campaigners and watch the short film they created on Reconstructing the Social Contract here. 

Follow The Equality Trust on Instagram, Facebook and X (Formerly Twitter). 

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry

In our bonus episodes, we speak to women from our Women's Interfaith Network (WIN) community to share their stories and give their own unique perspectives on keeping faith. 

In our fifth bonus episode, Santosh Behl from our Gants Hill WIN group shares the enduring impact of the Summer 2024 riots on her community as well as reflecting on her journey with interfaith work.

Find out more about WIN's grassroots women's groups and our wide-ranging projects.
Read our origin story here.

Keeping Faith: A How-To Guide was created as part of Women’s Interfaith Network's 2024-2025 Keeping Faith Programme. Read more about the programme here and be the first to hear about upcoming events and ways to get involved by signing up to our newsletter. Views expressed on this podcast are the speaker’s own and may not reflect the views of Women’s Interfaith Network. 

Hosted by Maeve Carlin

Produced by Maeve Carlin and Adam Brichto

Edited by Adam Brichto

Executive Produced by Lady Gilda Levy

Theme music composed by Jamie Payne

Logo and Artwork designed by Jasey Finesilver

Support from Tara Corry