President Lesley’s message – 2009
Welcome to the website for Soroptimist International of Ramsbottom.
Thank you for showing an interest in the largest international women’s service organisation in the world, with clubs in 124 countries worldwide.
I am Lesley Pritchard, President of Ramsbottom Soroptimists, a position I am honoured to hold from April 2009 until April 2010, when another member will take over at the AGM. We are a very friendly and happy club of 34 members from a variety of backgrounds- business, professional and the voluntary sector, with ages from 40′s to 90, who are committed to working to make a difference to the lives of women and children both locally and abroad.
We meet twice a month, on the second and fourth Tuesdays. The first is a business meeting held at 7.30pm at Ramsbottom Cricket Club, the second is a speaker meeting at 7.00pm, followed by an optional meal, held at the Red hall Hotel, Bury.
We are in our 58th year. The club is a member of the South Lancashire Region, and two of our members currently hold regional posts. We are proud to have had the immediate past international president as one of our members. We have friendship links with SI Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, and with Crieff, Scotland.
If you have some spare time you would like to put to good use, please contact us – you can be assured of a warm welcome.
This year the club is focussing on young carers, Violence against Women – stop it now, and Alzheimers. We continue to support local hospices in various capacities as well as other local groups. Internationally, we support the Soroptimist Quadrennial Project Sierra – a Home and a Future, which hopes to raise £1 million to change he lives of some of the most deprived women and children, as well as equipping a mobile field clinic for a remote area in the east of Sierra Leone, the second poorest country in the world.
We are also working to raise the profile of Soroptimism locally.