Our Links with Other Clubs
Our Friendship Links Coffee Morning
On 21st January, Catherine again hosted a coffee morning to raise awareness (and funds) for our Friendship Links club in Harare, Zimbabwe. Times seem a little easier for them but they still need our help in providing for their home for the elderly and their projects with children. Before Christmas, Catherine had sent off 16 parcels of items - sweets, notebooks, pens and pencils for the children and packets of food for Christmas celebrations. Their club is only small but they seem to do an amazing amount of work in difficult circumstances, so we’re really pleased to support them.
Soroptimism is an organisation for making friends and keeping them!
In the 1950s and 1960s, it wasn’t unusual for people to migrate from East London to Southend. Since our club was formed in 1953, our link with East London has remained strong – we call their club our ‘mother’ club because they helped to get us started and have remained our friends over the intervening years.
We meet up with them for social gatherings and sometimes go to their meetings and they come to ours.
This year some of us joined them for their anti-trafficking talk which was excellent. We met them again for Saturday lunch during their Friendship Link weekend. We met Soroptimists from SI Rovigo and were pleased to be there when their Friendship Link charter was signed.
In July, members of the East London club visited our club, and then again in October, some of us went along to their one woman presentation about Dame Ethel Smyth, the Suffragette who did a great deal to further the status of women in the music world during the early 20th century.
Jackie and Margaret visited the club again in November to help them in their new recruitment and awareness-raising campaign. As a ‘daughter club’ we have pledged to support them in any way we can.
Our Friendship Links Evening – July 2009
In July, our members gathered at Catherine’s house to meet our Friendship Link from Zimbabwe, Shirley. The evening gave us lots to think about and to plan for, to keep up our support for our Friendship Links Club. Life is hard out there, and much of the work for the children and adults they support must be done very quietly.
President Betty was delighted to present to Shirley, some contributions to help with their important work with the elderly, young children and babies back in Zimbabwe.
Every year we collect useful items for the club and send them off. It’s our way of helping them continue with their important work in Zimbabwe.
Our new Friendship Link with Gdansk in Poland is a bit slow getting off the ground but we’re hoping to get in touch and visit them in the near future. This link was created because Southend itself is twinned with Sopot, which is near Gdansk.
President Cathy often visits Costa del Sol in Spain and since Soroptimists are welcome at sister clubs throughout the world, Cathy visits the Mijas, Costa del Sol club whenever she can. Here she is with some of their members! We’re hoping to establish a formal Friendship Link with them shortly.