Programme Actions are at the heart of what we do as Soroptimists. Through our Programme Action goals we support charities, fund raise, raise awareness and lobby to support our goals of educating, empowering and enabling women and young girls across the world.
At the Oxford Club we have worked with a number of local charities within Oxford including Crisis Skylight and the Abingdon Bridge, as well as supporting international projects such as ActionAid and other Soroptimists clubs in our region.
Below are a few of our recent activities to support some of the causes that are close to our Mission as a club.
Fund Raising Coffee Event
June 2018
Members and friends enjoyed a sunny summer morning with coffee and cake whilst at the same time raising funds for our International President’s Appeal, Women, Water and Leadership. This appeal focusses on ‘the important role women play in the water sector. In many countries it is women living in rural areas who are responsible for fetching and collecting water and although they are experts in water they rarely participate in decision making. Women, Water and Leadership will provide women with the training to increase their individual capacities and prepare them to be key partners’. (source : www.soroptimistinternational.org)
The first project has begun and it is providing women of the Mwihoko Women Group in Kenya to be empowered in the food security of their families. The women and their families have also been trained in how to construct multi-storey gardens at the resource centre. For additional information on this first project visit the website above. The Mwihoko Project is the first one of the projects which will be implemented in 5 continents.
Funds raised will also support our ongoing sponsorship with PLAN International UK of a young girl in Pakistan and our Federation Project, The Meru Women’s Garden Project which is now in its final year.
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Not This Girl. Not Any Girl. Not Anywhere – Supporting Actionaid’s Appeal
Club member, Ann, attended an event at The Shard in London in support of Actionaid’s latest appeal. The money raised through this appeal will be match funded by the UK Government until the 7th June. Not This Girl Appeal will support women’s groups who are preventing girls from being abused and making sure survivors are heard, treated and have the backing of the law. Help women and girls stand together. ActionAid.org.uk
Programme Action Celebration Evening
This month’s club event was a celebration of all our work over the past year including fundraising for local, national and international projects, advocacy, and support in a variety of different ways for other projects. This included both local, such as Project Shoebox Oxford, and other regional Soroptimist based projects. We have a achieved a great deal and members celebrated over a glass of wine whilst participating in club member Becky’s quiz, listening to club members Radka and Berna and also our guest speaker, Maria, from The Dorcas Dress Project. Radka told us about ‘Lend with Care’ which she has supported for a number of years.
Berna spoke about a project that she and her club in Izmir were involved with in Macedonia. The project focused on young women, leadership and education. Berna has written a number of books around leadership so her personal involvement was extremely pertinent.
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Blankets for refugees
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Day Of Action
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Collection of Items for the Kori Project in Sierra Leone
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Water Aid – World Water Day
Supporting Project Shoebox Oxford
November 2016
Club members donated generously a variety of toiletries and gifts in support of Project Shoebox Christmas Appeal. This local Project is a community giving one which collects unused and unwanted toiletries and non perishable foods for women and their families who are in Oxfordshire domestic abuse refuges, homeless shelters or who are refugees.
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Sudap Village Project, Nepal – Update
On 1st June 2016 ActionAid posted a blog entry featuring our project in Nepal, here is an extract:
“Today marks the Global Day of Parents – a day to celebrate families across the world. It also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the incredible mums we work with. Many parents know all too well how difficult it is to juggle a career with childcare. We’re working with Nepalese mums to address this issue.”
Click on the link below to read the full article.
Posted 11-Jun-16
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Parkinson’s Fund Raising – Update
April 2016
On Wednesday 6th April, Moira and Ros – our Club Presidents – went along to Parkinson’s UK Oxford Branch to present a cheque for £900 from our Club. (This has been our Presidents’ Charity for the 2015/2016 year). They were delighted to receive it and it will go into their Carer’s Respite Fund.
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Educate to Lead – Nepal
For the next two years (2015 – 2017) we are supporting our International President’s Appeal, ‘Educate to Lead: Nepal’ through advocacy, and by holding a number of fundraising events.
The Appeal addresses human rights issues that follow a disaster. The aim is to help people rebuild their lives whilst providing educational opportunities which may not have existed prior to the earthquake.
It is essential that the project increases educational resources for women and girls and that in turn the number of women and girls accessing educational opportunities increases. Additionally, the project is also focussing on increasing opportunities for leadership development.
(Source: http://www.soroptimistinternational.org/appeal/an-introduction)
Posted 20-Feb-16
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Sudap Village Project – Nepal
Our project in Eastern Nepal in partnership with ActionAid is helping to build a community child care centre so women are able to leave their children in safe care whilst they work. The photos shows some of the children and women we are supporting.
Posted 23-Jan-16
Update March 2016:
ActionAid have provided us with their report on how the funding provided by Oxford & District Soroptimists is helping the Sudap Community. You can download the full report (as a PDF) here: ActionAid Final Report – SIOD Mar2015.
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‘Orange The World’
From 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, through to 10th December, Human Rights Day, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender – Based Violence aims to raise public awareness and mobilise people worldwide to bring about change. The UN Secretary General’s UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Campaign invites us all to ‘Orange the World’ – orange to symbolise a brighter future without violence.
At November’s meeting members wore a little something orange.
Posted 30-Nov-15
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Supporting a Community Childcare Centre In Nepal
April 2015 – April 2016
This year we are supporting a project run by ActionAid in Sudap Village in Eastern Nepal. The community is struggling to fund the rent for the building they are presently in and therefore the project’s sustainability is threatened. The community has now found land to construct a new child care centre of its own but cannot afford the construction.
The aim of the project is to fund the construction of the building. ActionAid has been supporting women by giving them the opportunity to earn their own living outside the home by making sure their children are taken care of. The childcare centre will ensure this and also provide employment for the women who look after the children. As Soroptimists we will be making a big difference to these women’s lives.
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Stand With #fearless Women To End Violence Against Women
October 2015
Club members Helena and Ann recently attended in London the launch of ActionAid’s campaign to end violence against women.
One in three women will face violence sometime in their lifetimes. It is time to bring an end to this. Get involved in ActionAid’s 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women in November.
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/fearless
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In Support Of The Kori Project And To Mark International Literacy Day (8th September)
16th September, 2015
At September’s meeting, club members donated a variety of books to support SI Thames Valley one of our London Chilterns Region clubs. As part of their Kori Project a library is in the process of being constructed and books of all genres are needed. The library is the first to be built in Sierra Leone since the ending of the civil war.
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Marking UN World Water Day
18th March 2015
It is our mission for this year to mark important UN days in our calendars and importantly, to mark them at our monthly meetings together as a group.
With March marking the UN’s World Water Day (22nd March), we hosted a small (non-competitive, promise!) quiz on water scarcity, water use and sanitation across the world. I think we all left a little wiser (and shocked) at some of the statistics for water sanitation and then impact of water availability, or lack thereof, upon women and young girls in their families as water carriers. Be sure to look on the UN’s website to see some of the stats!
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Regional Meeting and Celebration of United Nations Human Rights Day
6th December 2014
Article 1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’.
Over seventy members gathered at the Bedford Golf Club for the winter regional meeting and the annual celebration of United Nations Human Rights Day.
As well as being updated by Federation Programme Director, Sue Biggs, on Programme Action matters, key note speaker, Colette Paul, Chief Constable of Bedfordshire, spoke movingly of her work in the field of modern day slavery and trafficking.
Each section of the day was linked with the reading of different articles of the Declaration of Human Rights which facilitated reflection and thought by everyone. This was an excellent regional event enjoyed by all.
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Bras …Bras…And More Bras
Over the past 6 years club member, Chris, has been fantastic in rallying us all into collecting bras. She has also placed Bra Banks in a number of places and carried out many collections. Through her hard work, 1200 kg of bras have been collected raising an amazing £1200 for our projects. This is an ongoing project.
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London Chiltern’s Regional Meeting
14th June, 2014
London Chilterns Regional Meeting at the Medieval Abbey Building in Abingdon was attended by 70 Soroptimists from groups across the region.
Regional President, Penny Dmoch, Introduced the speaker Fiona McTaggart MP for Slough and also Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking/Modern Day Slavery.
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Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict
10th-13th June, 2014 London
The Foreign Secretary and Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN High Commission for Refugees, co-chaired The Global Summit.
Standing by the SIGBI stand is club member, Ann Hawken, who attended a day of The Summit Fringe. ‘The Fringe was an excellent event and great to experience. One of the events I attended was the Ministerial launch of the UK’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. Speakers included the UK Foreign Secretary, Defence Secretary and International Development Secretary along with key women’s advocates from Syria, Uganda, The Philippines sharing their experiences’.Women make up 70% of the world’s poor
- 41,000,000 girls are denied primary education world wide?
- The 4 reasons for inequality can be summarised as:
- Cash
- Confidence
- Care
- Culture
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International President’s Appeal – ‘See Solar, Cook Solar’
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Pretty Girls for Sale
What have cake and feet got in common? Raising awareness and money with the Eve Appeal
Cementing Futures
Cementing Futures is an educational development charity with a mission to bring education, hope and dignity to children who have no means of currently accessing state provided education in deprived areas. They wish to provide general education, educational opportunities and assistance with the health needs of the children and their families who are living in poverty in Bangladesh.
In association with SI Bournemouth. We have currently raised £3563 for them.
Margaret presenting our cheque of £1518.00 to Bournemouth club for their Cementing Futures fund.
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The Porch Steppin’ Stone Centre
A local Oxford charity providing day long support for homeless and vulnerably housed people wanting to move forward in their lives. They run a cafe, laundry facilities, showers, free clothing store, library and much more.
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