This chapter discusses the delivery and evaluation of a women-only physical activity and yoga programme, designed to improve physical activity levels, social isolation and wellbeing among South Asian and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) migrant women living in areas of high economic deprivation. The chapter provides an accessible insight into the aims, objectives, methods and findings of the study.

It provides important recommendations on how researchers and service providers can deliver culturally tailored, community-based health interventions, and how an approach to sustainable, communitybased interventions can be devised through this type of research. It demonstrates that social support – such as childcare provision, childfriendly sessions and social media forums determined by the target population – can mitigate misconceptions about South Asian and BME migrant women being hard to reach and difficult to engage in physical activity health interventions.

Project and background

The purpose of this project was to deliver a women-only physical activity and yoga programme over a 12-month period. It sought to improve physical activity participation levels, social isolation and wellbeing among South Asian women living in an area of high economic deprivation within an East Midlands city. The programme was targeted at South Asian women, but also attracted Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) migrant women.

It is important here to outline the overlap that commonly occurs between populations belonging to BME and migrant groups. This is because these terms can become conflated, and thus the experiences of ethnicity, race, health and social isolation between the groups can become homogenised. However, these experiences can differ between these groups. BME groups include established minorities as well as those resulting from recent migratory waves. ‘Migrants and their descendants, sometimes termed [new arrivals], and second or third generation migrants, often become part of BME communities’ (Llácer et al, 2007).

In this study, the South Asian women included women who were born in the UK or who had migrated within the last 10–30 years from Bangladesh. The BME migrant women who participated had migrated within the last 12 months and self-defined themselves as Indian, Arabian and Muslim. Their countries of original residence included India, Italy and Arab countries.