News

Fariba’s Experience as Trustee for Yaran Women’s Club

3rd November 2025

Yaran Women’s Club is a safe place for women and their children. It is a nonprofit constituted organisation and is solely established to help women of all ages who may be suffering from isolation and loneliness, anxiety and depression or any other kind of mental health issues.

This registered charity utilised the ​​Emotional Health Check Program (EHC); providing a community and developing friendship through free courses and activities.

Yaran Women’s Club is governed by Board of Trustees, founded by the remarkable Fariba Nassiri, who began this astonishing initiative in June 2021. For Trustees’ Week, we discover her astonishing story from volunteer, to Trustee – and beyond.

I was a Trustee for Yaram Women’s Club… But now we’ve got four other Trustees and now my job is being CEO!

From Volunteer to Trustee to…

I started as a volunteer in advocacy alongside my working life in Barnet Social Services. After I retired, I continued my volunteering; as an interpreter for mental health patients. Through this, I discovered the need for a place for lonely and isolated women to gather together and socialise. So I started the club and I created this atmosphere; first as a volunteer and then I was one of the Trustees,… And then I got to know other people who I really trusted; they were all professionals and they agreed to share Trusteeship with me.

Finding Trustees

Finding Trustees with the right skills was quite incidental to begin with, because we were all working with women with mental health conditions. My first Port of Call while I was interpreting was a hospital with a psychiatric centre, and the consultant agreed to work with us as a Trustee. At the time, he was managing two localities in Barnet, and the two other Trustees that we had from there were accountants and bookkeepers. It was my luck – or God sent to me!

They are very much involved in the work that we do: very busy in the background. Every week, I consult with them for their professional views on finance,mental health or our consultants: I’m really lucky to have their input and help.

Our newest Trustee was involved in Disability Action Barnet, so she’s a very caring person and she’s a professional as well. But at the moment it may be good to have another woman on the board of our trustees. Someone who’s got a law background, especially charity law.

Our Greatest Achievement as Trustees

The fact is that we started with three clients and we now have 600 members and the fact that we have always been working together, we have always agreed on common views and they have always supported me. That’s our major success: cooperating, being together and the cohesiveness between us… The friendship! That’s really joyful – as well as hard work!

People who have come to our club have described it as life-changing.

We have people who are referred to us from psychiatric boards, they are coming sometimes with their carer or their nurses and they look forward to coming here.

We also have people with learning disabilities, people undergoing treatment from cancer. It’s a place for them to socialise and to be with other people. 

We first have yoga in the morning, then we’ve classes for speakers of other languages. And then we have art and craft – a way of focusing and being engrossed in what they are doing that it’s really a highlight of their week!

If you are confident in researching and advising on the legalities of running a charity, including charity governance, compliance, and risk management. Yaran Women’s Club is seeking a Trustee to provide clear, informed advice. You will be key to the charity’s continued success and its ability to serve its beneficiaries effectively.

If you are interested in this remarkable opportunity, contact Yaran Women’s Club here:

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