Welcoming our new Muslim chaplain
We caught up with Ruquyya Vankad, who recently joined the chaplaincy team at Whipps Cross Hospital, to find out more about her, the new role and the support she offers to patients and staff.
Where have you worked previously and what experience do you bring to the role?
I have been teaching for the past 20 years in a wide variety of mainstream educational environments as well as Islamic institutions. Having gained permission to teach the science of Quran recitation alongside a Islamic theology degree, my focus for the past few years has been within the Islamic sector. This enabled me to teach within the local community as well as offer spiritual and pastoral care to those in need. Most recently my involvement has been in educating teenage girls in coming to terms with their own Islamic identity in a western world.
I have also become involved in local issues of concern, working with the local MPs to raise money for the homeless in Waltham Forest and visiting the refugee camps in Calais with locally-collected aid. I have also been involved in health and community development projects where I have learned the importance of local people deciding upon their health priorities and the assets their community already has to help them to chart the complex journey out of poverty. Internationally I have also organised charity dinners to raise money for projects that provide water wells in drought-stricken countries.
During the pandemic my volunteering skills came to the forefront as I was the designated muslim lead for organising the ritual washing and preparation for the burial of Muslim women who had died. Due to the nature of the pandemic, close family members were not able to be with loved ones at this crucial time and I set up services within the local community and trained volunteers to assist families. This experience taught me to value the importance of deeply listening and attending to people at vulnerable periods in their lives.
In what way does your role help patients and staff?
My role, as a Muslim Chaplain within a multi-faith chaplaincy team, is to provide pastoral care and spiritual support for both patients and staff whether or not people identify as belonging to a particular religion. Chaplains are also there to help people who have a religious faith and who find that their faith gives them strength in challenging and distressing times. Experiences of illness, suffering, death and bereavement can raise acute questions of meaning and purpose for all of us. Chaplains are there to listen carefully to what is most important to people and to help them to make sense of their experience.
What attracted you to this area of work?
I know from my work within the community what a privilege it is to be able to accompany people at critical times in their lives. I get a deep sense of fulfilment from being with people at these times and I also enjoy (where appropriate) the opportunity to help people to make connections between their faith and their experiences of life. For me it is a blessing to be able to provide a listening and attentive ear when a person may need it the most.
What is your proudest career achievement so far?
This is the hardest question to answer for me. My work is my calling, an honour bestowed upon me and I pray I am able to do it justice and provide comfort. For me it isn’t a career. If I had to answer, I would say working with teenage girls has been the work I am most proud of. To be able to help a troubled teenager make sense of the inner conflicts they face, and identify the small, but significant change that they are able to make for themselves and their communities is very special.
What’s the most memorable feedback you’ve had from a patient/member of staff?
The look of relief on a patients face after unburdening accompanied by a smile, it touches my heart every time.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The opportunity to interact with a very wide variety of people, of all faiths and none, and to have rich, stimulating conversations. The thought that I have been given an opportunity to make a difference to a patient’s life. At my core I hold a passion to help and I love the fact that I have been given this opportunity to help.
What are you looking forward to most about working at Whipps Cross?
I’m looking forward to learning more both about Whipps Cross’s unique identity as a hospital and also about the community it serves. I look forward to working as part of a team and I am encouraged by knowing that everyone is working together with the same goal in mind, providing a service that ultimately is about helping people.
What do you consider the biggest challenge in your area of work?
I think that one of the biggest challenges is to continue to offer high quality, unhurried pastoral, spiritual and religious care in an institution which, like many parts of the NHS, is under huge pressure. A related challenge is to learn and to develop further nuanced ways in which to measure the impact of our work.
How would you spend an ideal day off?
An ideal day off would be sleeping till late morning, sleep and I are best friends, I have a unique ability to take a nap anywhere, however I seldom have the opportunity. I would then love to go to the beach and eat fish and chips facing the sea. Often, even in winter, I am known to drive to the local seaside and wade straight into the water, following that up with fish and chips and a good book.
Tell us something interesting about yourself:
As a three-year old, I believed I was a super hero and could fly. I discovered I couldn’t after falling straight onto a concrete footpath from a third floor window. I guess I learnt the hard way that I cannot fly!