Tigers International Association

TIA was formed by a group of British Bangladeshi professionals, inspired to work with and help Bangladeshi people residing in the UK and abroad. We are working with local government offices and other various voluntary organizations to provide support in the field of education, employment, health, leisure, and recreation.

TIA is based at 259 Featherstall Road North, Oldham, a terraced property, which has been adapted to provide office space together with a moderately sized meeting room. Its Management Committee is drawn from members of the local community, and the services that it provides benefit the local community as a whole.

Over the 10 years of its existence, the TIA has created and still enjoys many useful and strong partnerships which help it to deliver real benefits and services to the residents of the Greater Manchester community.

Our charity is simple, supportive, and effective. Our objective is to increase confidence in education and have better chances in life. TIA is based in Oldham to primarily work with the local people and make a positive impact in the community

Secondly, to work with the Bangladeshi community in the UK and abroad to create a social network in order to share the cultures of the various host communities to propagate understanding and tolerance by educating people in the cultural diversity of various communities and promoting understanding of the different cultures of the world (community cohesion).

Thirdly, The relief of persons who are in need by the provision of advice and information in such matters as immigration, money debts, welfare benefits, housing, health, education, training, and employment.

Fourthly, TIA’s aim is to provide relief, whenever necessary to the victims of natural disasters in any community in the world.

Fifthly, advance the education of the public in the arts and cultural activities in particular through exhibitions, workshops, and performances so as to promote the development of a public appreciation of music, drama, and literature.

Sixthly, TIA’s aim is to advance education and provide relief from unemployment for the benefit of the public by the establishment of an institution to deliver vocational training courses, provide work experience, and develop relationships with job centres, employers, and other agencies to provide assistance to find employment.

More specifically, TIA works with the local community and sets up various educational training and provides efficient help and support within Education, Training, and advice projects based on local needs or community would benefit from.

TIA is focusing on developing activity in each of the areas; advice centre, training, and community projects. We want to take advantage of our unique emphasis on educational and cultural learning and development opportunities.

This is truly a community-based charity organisation with membership open to individuals who will share our aims and objectives. General members are recruited to the TIA development committee, which has been formed. Through these local committees, a professional network has already been created. This will help immensely in delivering TIA’s objectives.

TIA's strengths are ongoing support from volunteers, effective financial management, effective communications between staff and community members, the heart of the community, and only organisation aiming primarily at Bangladeshi people although open to all, strong link with local authorities and other committee members, well known and respected organisation activities, and proven track record over 10 years of community and voluntary activities.

Over the years, the TIA has gained the respect of local people who rely heavily on the services including advice and information. TIA successfully delivered numerous projects for the benefit of local people, working with the statutory and voluntary sectors and the business community. This partnership approach has enabled it to go further and faster in helping people meet a variety of needs.

TIA's aim is to promote volunteering and provide opportunities for individuals to become involved in volunteering activities. TIA's aim is to provide a great standard of customer service to its communities and provide them with a simple effective service for all their personal and development needs. TIA has structured this very carefully so the support provided by TIA will be proficient.

Our Project “the Oral History of Bangladeshis in Greater Manchester” highlights this progress four generations on. Today, the community is well integrated into mainstream society but inequality and disadvantage in accessing services still exist, that is why TIA exists.

However, over the years, we have had to adapt to the changing needs and expectations of the community. Whereas in the early days, it was about language, access to basic services, and communication issues, today, the challenges are mirroring those experienced by the mainstream communities. Unemployment, drugs, crime, etc are affecting the community. We are working with mainstream agencies in a partnership role to better inform them of the needs and expectations of our still hard-to-reach community. As ever, we work with very limited resources, supporting ever-increasing numbers and higher demands for our services.

TIA’s is connected with the worldwide community by Facebook and other social networks. The community benefited from exchanging news and views through these online services. In the past, the TIA has developed two projects in Bangladesh, one in Sylhet and another one in Barishall. We also have a plan to do two projects, one is re-housing projects for poor people and another one is to develop a medical college and a hospital in Sylhet.

We are creating a growing number of role models representing diverse fields and are all proud to be British and Bangladeshi. Their success is down to the hard work and dedication of many of our volunteers. More importantly, their success, our success is down to many of the parents and grandparents, respected elders who took part in the Oral History Project, and who are now reaping the benefits of the hard work.

Our young people and community is progressing, moving forward, achieving success, and creating role models for future generations. TIA is proud to lay its part in helping to bring about the small changes that will have a huge impact in the future.

TIA has and continues to work with volunteers to provide most of our services. Encouraging local people in the community to give something back has been our greatest success and this is the most powerful way to show the community that change and improvements are possible.