A BENGALI community worker is appealing for help to maintain a service she feels is vital for women with her background living isolated lives in Kidderminster.

Miah Faijun, who has been the linchpin of a Bengali women's group in the town for more than 20 years, is desperate for help from English white women.

It is the first time she has called for support of this kind in her long struggle to carry on the work of the group at the Horsefair Community Centre, Derwent House.

Membership dwindled over a period to 10 and has now dropped to just seven, meaning she can no longer claim the social services grant she needs for books and transport. But even 10 was disappointing for a group serving a population of probably more than 100 women whom she believes would benefit from the English language teaching it offers.

Even with this small number she cannot provide the one-to-one support they need and she wants help from Kidderminster women, not necessarily with any formal qualifications, to teach English speaking, reading and writing.

Mrs Faijun, 47, of Hurcott Road, Kidderminster, is convinced the reason Bengali wives draw back from joining the group and making links with schools and other women is because they lack English.

"They never say they are afraid or don't have the confidence to come to my group, they just say they will come next year. But they never do," she said.

"Sometimes they fear their husbands will not like it because of our culture. But I am strongly religious and I know there is nothing against them coming to the group. I know from the Koran that Mohammed said "you can go to China if that is where you have to go for education", so surely people can go down the road to Derwent House.

"But they are nervous just walking in the street. Worried about not being able to speak the language and being laughed at."

Mrs Faijun, a mother of nine who is also a St George's First School governor and a class assistant, has acted for many years as an important link between her community and social services.

She is loyal herself to the Bengali culture and understands the loneliness of the women who miss the outgoing social lives they led in the villages they left behind.

She is also trusted in the Bengali community because of her strong religious convictions, not to infringe customs in dress and social conduct that to Western women seem so restricting.

Mrs Faijun puts down her involvement in community work to the advantage she had in coming to Britain with a little English learned at school in Bengal. She built on that by continuing lessons in England.

She would now like to see more Bengali women in Kidderminster enjoying the wider community in which they live. Anyone who would like more details can contact Mrs Faijun on 01562 746630.