The Club has received this year’s Mary Hillary Award for its work raising funds and creating awareness of Women in Need, the charity started by Leah Pattison from Teesdale, which helps ill, destitute and homeless women in the Napper region of India. The award, given to the project that best reflects Soroptimist International’s vision and mission of helping women and children through advocacy, action and awareness, was presented by the Yorkshire regional president, Val Jenkins, at Askham Bryan College.

There were 117 projects considered for the award.

BRIGHTON CONFERENCE 2011:  27^th-29^th October 2011 

Six of our members attended the highly successful and memorable Annual Federation Conference which was held in the Brighton Dome. The Conference, whose theme was “Inspiring Action, Transforming Lives” offered the opportunity to meet other Soroptimists from all over the world and to share news about the multitude of current and planned projects working to transform the lives of women and girls across all countries.

There was the parade of flags from all the nations represented; greetings from HM The Queen, from Presidents of Ireland and the Isle of Man; from Governors  of many Commonwealth countries and from senior UK  politicians. These were followed by stimulating keynote speakers, workshops on a wide range of topics and a whole army of exhibitors displaying items relating to the work and aims of Soroptimism.

In a major conference event, the roof nearly flew off the Dome Theatre when the Soroptimists were given the news that they had reached the fund-raising target of £1million for the life-saving work of Project SIerra and Hope and Home for Children to help women and girls in Sierra Leone to rebuild their lives after 20 years of civil war.  The cheque which was presented to partner organisation, Hope and Homes for Children was the result of the four-year appeal “Project Sierra” –  a joint effort by the 90,000 members of Soroptimist International in 124 countries across the world.  SIGBI members raised £370,000 of that amount alone and 1,200 members of SI Great Britain and Ireland were in Brighton to see the cheque presented.

The International Project Liaison for Project SIerra,  Alison Sutherland, who couldn’t be at the Conference, sent this message from Sierra Leone:

“I have seen first-hand how Project SIerra has made a real difference to the lives of so many women, children and their families in need. Reaching the £1 million target is an amazing innovative fundraising effort.” 

Next year’s conference will be held in Belfast.