Suffolk Sister Solace: One year of belonging

The name that came with a purpose

Mahjabin has spent her career in education and Suffolk, she says, is home to diverse communities, but opportunities for those communities to meet others with shared lived experience are limited.

"There were many amazing organisations doing incredible work, or just working for women in general," she explains. "But there was nothing specifically for Global Majority women."

The term "Global Majority" was coined by the Black British educator and activist Rosemary Campbell-Stephens MBE. It recognises that people of African, Arab, Asian, Indigenous and Latin American descent, along with people of mixed heritage, collectively make up around 80–85% of the world's population.

"I started Suffolk Sister Solace because I knew how powerful it could be to have a room full of women who understand your experiences," Mahjabin says. "Across many cultures, we refer to our friends and the women in our communities as 'sisters', I wanted to create a space where women could find that sense of sisterhood and seek solace."

"It's quite a new term," Mahjabin says. "In the UK, we hear terms like 'minority ethnic' a lot, because here we're a small population. But on the Global Majority side of things, we make up most of the world." Suffolk Sister Solace initially described itself as being for "Black, Brown and underrepresented women", before Mahjabin settled on the language she felt fitted the group's identity more closely.

The unrest that sparked a sisterhood

The idea for Suffolk Sister Solace had sat with Mahjabin for years before she finally acted on it in August 2025. She is clear about what finally pushed her to take the leap.

"I think there was a lot of racial unrest in the summers of 2024 and 2025," she says. "I found it quite unsettling personally, and I thought there was no better time to start Suffolk Sister Solace than now, because I believe unity is really important."

She points to Operation Raise the Colours and the riots that followed the Southport stabbings, in which three young girls tragically lost their lives, as a turning point. "As a result, there were a lot of racial attacks, not just there but in other places in the UK too. It made me personally feel a bit bothered, like I don't belong here."

She was not alone in that feeling. "When I did start the organisation, quite a few people reached out to me and said they felt this was a great time to start something like this, especially with so much going on."

Selling out, one event at a time

Suffolk Sister Solace has since become a registered Community Interest Company, with Mahjabin running everything on her own and alongside her full-time job. She now runs events roughly every six weeks.

"The first event had ten people, which was more than fifty per cent capacity," she says. "After that, every single event has sold out – within a week. It's got to the point now where women message asking if they can be put on a waiting list."

Attendance has settled into a roughly even split between newcomers and returning faces, many of whom bring friends along. "The response I've received has been overwhelming, but in a positive way," Mahjabin says. "It's really touching seeing how many women resonate with Suffolk Sister Solace."

One pattern has stood out to her in particular: how many women arrive on their own. "It's so nice seeing how nervous they are when they first attend, and then how confident and happy they are when they leave," she says. An ice-breaker at the start of every event is designed to ease that nervousness before it takes hold.

"I believe this is a really exciting time for Suffolk Sister Solace CIC," Mahjabin says. "We're growing at a rapid rate. This is evident through almost all of our events selling out, and our regular attendees. I'm really looking forward to watching Suffolk Sister Solace CIC continue to flourish."

Built around accessibility

Suffolk Sister Solace runs two distinct types of event. Sister Socials are exclusively for Global Majority women; Community & Connect events are open to the wider community.

Affordability and accessibility sit at the centre of how every event is run. Tickets are kept deliberately low, typically ranging from £3 to £12, with concession rates available for anyone unable to pay full price.

"One of the biggest barriers to people attending events in general is price, especially somewhere like Ipswich, where socio-economic factors are really important," Mahjabin says.

Every event is preceded by a questionnaire covering accessibility requirements, step-free access, anxiety and dietary needs, and followed by a feedback survey. "That helps me understand and identify if there's any accessibility needs," she says.

For Mahjabin, this is about more than logistics. "Representation is more than just walking into a room and seeing yourself reflected," she says. "It's about having autonomy in what the room looks and feels like. That's why we use pre-event questionnaires and post-event surveys. Inclusivity is the driving force behind what we do, and it's vital that our sisters know their needs are being heard and accommodated."

Until this year, every event had been entirely self-funded, with ticket sales covering costs. In May, Suffolk Sister Solace received its first ever grant: £3,000 from the Tudwick Foundation, a grant-giving trust founded in 2019 by members of the Bennett family that supports communities and charitable organisations across Essex and Suffolk.

One year on

This Saturday, Suffolk Sister Solace marks its first anniversary with a Pizza, Play & Party evening: a DJ, pizza, games and a raffle in which every prize comes from a Global Majority woman-owned business.

"I really want to celebrate Global Majority women," Mahjabin says. "There'll be a DJ, there'll be pizza, and opportunities to win prizes throughout the night."

Supporting other Global Majority-led businesses matters to her as she builds her own. "I also want to continue supporting local businesses, particularly those led by Global Majority women," she says. "When they win, we all win!"

Looking beyond the anniversary, she wants Suffolk Sister Solace to grow into supporting age groups beyond the 30 to 50-year-olds who currently make up most attendees. Eventually, she hopes to build a small paid team.

For now, though, the mission remains the same one she started with. "It's not easy being a woman in this world," she says. "If we can have a space where women can talk about their experiences – both positive and negative – then that's amazing."

The bottom line

What began as one woman's response to a difficult summer has, in 12 months, become a community that sells out its own events. Suffolk Sister Solace's growth – from ten attendees at its first gathering to waiting lists, a first grant and an anniversary party built around supporting other women's businesses – suggests this was a space Suffolk needed.

As she puts it, the aim was always simple: a place where Global Majority women in Suffolk could find solace.

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