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

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 fourth bonus episode, Averil Pooten-Watan from WIN’s Waltham Forest Group shares the personal story that inspires her work on Waltham Forest’s Borough of Sanctuary framework, how local communities mobilised in response to far-right extremism in Summer 2024 and what we can all do to make a difference in our own backyard. 

Read more about Averil's critical work making vaccines accessible to undocumented communities during the pandemic.
Watch Averil and fellow Waltham Forest WIN member Jasmine speak about their ethos.
Read Averil’s advent reflections as part of our Festival Diary series here and here.
Find out more about WIN's grassroots women's groups and our wide-ranging projects.

Find out more about the organisations mentioned in this episode:
City of Sanctuary UK
East London/Telco Citizens
Barts Health Charity

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 descriptions of Gender-Based Violence, including Harassment, Femicide and Domestic, Sexual, Spiritual and Financial Abuse. Please listen with care.

What does it look like to shine a light on violence against women and girls (VAWG) when others are trying to sweep it under the rug? Why do harmful narratives stay so entrenched across communities and traditions when our scriptures preach egalitarianism? How do we keep faith in meaningful justice when the institutions designed to protect women and girls all too often let us down? 

In this episode, we speak to Sahdaish Pall (BEM), Co-Founder and CEO of Sikh Women’s Aid – an organisation founded by and for Sikh and Punjabi women to support victims of domestic & sexual abuse in the UK. This confronting conversation spans Sahdaish’s journey through the VAWG sector, the importance of specialist services and the backlash she’s faced in tackling taboo topics.

You can read Sikh Women’s Aid’s reports and surveys here or listen to their podcast, The Phulkaari, on YouTube, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Follow Sikh Women’s Aid on Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter to keep up with their vital work. 

The Faiths Against Domestic Abuse Campaign was founded in 2020 by Tara Corry from Women’s Interfaith Network and Jeeves Rohilla, formerly of Faiths Forum for London, and is now run as an independent project.  

If you need support or are affected by the issues discussed in this episode, please reach out to Sikh Women's Aid, the organisations below, or call the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247. Please note that WIN is not a frontline organisation. 

• Jewish Women's Aid
• Karma Nirvana
• Muslim Women’s Advisory Council
• Women's Aid
• Galop
• Southall Black Sisters

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