Looking back on 7 years with BSA

by Tanveer Rameez Ali

Outreach: Tanveer giving a talk on stammering in his hometown Gauhati in Assam, India.

It has been really great to be a Trustee of the British Stammering Association for the last 3 years.

I came to the UK from India in 2003 when I got a job as a software developer in London. My next assignment was in Belfast, Northern Ireland in mid 2004. I missed London, and without anyone that I knew I started feeling lonely and depressed. My speech worsened. It was then that I searched online for any stammering self-help group in Belfast and found the BSA website. Finding BSA was like finding the pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow for me!! I was directed to a Belfast self-help group. They meet every other week and I found the group very friendly. I became a BSA member.

A couple of months later, three of us from the Belfast group went to the BSA Conference in Stirling. Never before had I been to a stammering event, and I was amazed to meet more than 100 people who stammer like me. The whole 3 days left a very good memory. I returned to London later that year and went to an Open Day in Hull. I met Rachel Albert and others and she invited me to assist her in her Sunday Social events in London. In these socials and open days I made many friends. My self confidence increased a lot, mostly through my interactions in these events and the relationships I built with others there. It was then that I decided to organise the BSA Open Days in London, first in 2008, and then the Open Day this September. The BSA annual conferences and the World Congress of People who Stutter in Croatia were amazing experiences for me. Being elected as a Trustee of the BSA enabled me to have a say in the workings/policies of the BSA and to understand how it operates.

Turning point

These 7 years have been an important time in my life - from being in my 20s and working as a software developer, to now being in my 30s and working as an independent software consultant. I am glad that my involvement with the BSA through these years has had a positive impact and in some ways created a turning point in my life.

I would like to congratulate the new Trustees. I thank all Trustees, including previous Trustees, who have supported me and encouraged me during my position as a BSA Trustee. Special thanks to Norbert, our Chief Executive, for all the hard work and also thanks to the BSA staff without whose contribution the BSA London Open Day in September would not have been possible.

I will continue to be actively involved in the BSA.

From the Winter 2010 issue of Speaking Out, page 15