A BRADFORD man is hoping to help British-Pakistani youth learn new skills and express themselves through creative workshops.

Kasim Tariq is behind Fayakunu, which aims to get more young people engaged with crafts and pottery-making – helping to guide them away from the potential traps of poverty and crime.

Kasim, 29, from Great Horton started Fayakunu during the first Covid lockdown, after becoming concerned by some of the social issues he was seeing in his community.

He said there are complex factors at play. 

“People growing up in poor environments often try to show social dominance through aggression, as they don’t have other means to show it – for instance, they aren’t able to provide or fit the social threshold,” he said.

“We then get stuck in an echo chamber in Bradford – when the younger generation sees negative things, it becomes part of their identity.”

Fayakunu’s name is taken from ‘kun fa-yakunu’ – a phrase featured in the Qur’an which translates to ‘be, and it is’.

“We need to change the narrative of what it means to be Muslim and Pakistani in Bradford,” Kasim added.

“Fayakunu is a space to engage people from the community not only in arts and crafts, but in their own culture.

“There are many fine crafts in Pakistan, like ceramics and blacksmithing, which people have been doing for almost a thousand years.

“These crafts are dying out, and in the process of migration, British-Pakistanis have disconnected from our heritage.

“Our ancestors worked in mills, they were skilled and worked with their hands. A few generations later, that gets taken away, so we now have to remember our past and learn from it.

“We have woodwork and pottery classes – at the end of it, people have something they’ve made and can be proud of.”

Kasim graduated from university with a first in interior architecture and design, and considers himself a social designer – someone who uses design as a means to tackle important issues.

“I want to create things for the betterment of society,” he said.

“I want to take my work across the world.”

Fayakunu is in the final stages of a refurbishment and has started a Crowdfunder page to raise money.

You can visit the page here.