President’s message
Welcome to the website for Soroptimist International of Huddersfield. We are local members of an International Organisation of women supporting the aims of Soroptimism through Awareness, Advocacy and Action and improving the lives of women and girls.
S.I Huddersfield is a small friendly club made up of women from all walks of life. It uses the members talents and many skills to give service, as enablers and fundraisers to others.
The club meets twice a month on a Monday evening at Canalside Sports and Leisure Club Leeds Road. The meetings are balanced between business, Programme Action or activity and Speakers. The club is always looking to increase membership so if you feel you are able to help in any way we would be pleased to hear from you.
Programme Action
This is the name we give to our Voluntary work. To give a ‘flavour’ of our work, currently, on-going at a local level our President’s Charity for the year is The Joseph Salmon Trust. (www.thejosephsalmontrust.org.uk) which supports bereaved parents and families.
In our continued focus on the environment, we are collecting plants for the local National Trust Plant Group, looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and collecting such items as old spectacles, bras (yes, they get sent out to Africa!) and plastic bottle tops, which are re-cycled into bench seating. Through one of our members we have a Friendship link in Uganda to which we supply knitting wool, needles, cotton and thread. These are used to help train women and girls in essential skills. We also have members onvlolved in Reading Friends and ‘Books for Africa’.
The Huddersfield Club is represented in the Yorkshire Region with twenty seven other clubs. Recently campaigns supported have been Stop Violence to Women and Anti Slavery/Trafficking.
Internationally, Soroptimists are supporting Project Sierra, Hope and Homes for Children, which is working with women and their children to rebuild their lives in a situation where lengthy civil war has destroyed so much
A message about our plans for the coming year from one of our Presidents,
Anna Giraud
Our programme starts with “Club Reflection” and we hope that each one of you will be involved.
We are all here to continue the progress of SI Huddersfield so that we can carry on “making a difference” both here and worldwide.
This will be the start of a year which emphasises Programme Action, with fundraising events – see the next meeting for instance -, support for Birkby Croft and Beaumont Park, and
having a stand for Violence Against Women awareness – this time at the University.
We also plan to have a “Day of Service” event, possibly at Beaumont Park, and present a Concert at the end of the year for fundraising.
Not least, to keep the Club growing and thriving, we have invited Ann Hough, Operations Director and Club Secretary of the Huddersfield Town Football Club to be the key speaker at an Open Meeting at the Huddersfield University on 24th October, backed up by one of the Yorkshire Regional Councillors. This will be a very important recruitment event and once again, all of us need to be involved.
However, if you know of anyone who wants to see what we are about, now, don’t wait until then!
The Programme also lists our on-going Programme Action projects along with the key people for each. Any further ideas are welcome.
We are a small team this year but we hope to continue making a difference!