Our Programme Action – Violence Against Women – STOP IT NOW!

Our Programme Action Officer and Programme Action Committee are just what they say they are – ACTIVE! At the Southend club, we hope that every Soroptimist has an opportunity to DO SOMETHING in the name of Soroptimist International.

UN International Women’s Day – March 2012

The main item on our PAC agenda was our IWD event. Some of us will join the women on the bridge in London on March 8th and we are organising a BIG event in Southend for Saturday 10th March. It will be at Royal Square – side of The Royals – at 11.30am and in common with the general theme for the year, our theme will be Women and Peace. Watch this space!

We have other action and events planned as well and Irene will be distributing the new trifold with all the info, at the next meeting.

Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

On 1^st February, two members of the Southend-on-Sea and District club joined members of other women’s organisations at Amnesty International’s HQ for the UK premiere screening of Peace Unveiled. The documentary follows Afghan women as they seek to be included in peace talks in late 2009 and early 2010 and to make their voices heard. It highlights the changes that have occurred since America invited members of the Taliban to join the ‘peace’ negotiations and gave them greater influence.

The screening was followed by a moving personal statement from Horia Mosadiq, Afghan women’s rights activist and Amnesty International’s Afghanistan Researcher. She told how things have got worse, not better for women in recent years. Activists are being threatened with torture and death for being teachers, for educating girls and for asking for more freedom and greater involvement.

In answer to questions, Horia said that the best action to take is to lobby our government in support of Afghan women’s rights. They want better representation in parliament and in peace negotiations, and the right to education for every girl.

Visit the No Women No Peace website on http://www.nowomennopeace.org for more information and to view the film.

International UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women day - Basildon Eastgate event

For United Nations UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women week, members of the Southend club stood in the Basildon Eastgate Centre on Thursday 24th November and invited the public to sign up to say A Different World is Possible. They talked with passers-by about ending violence against women and the need to change attitudes to make this happen.

Women were very keen to sign up, as were some men and some poignant stories were heard. The team had lots of information available from the local refuges and other agencies who deal with domestic violence. They also distributed Loves Me, Loves Me Not bookmarks compiled by  the Soroptimist club in Yeovil and many women took these for their friends and daughters.

The posters were displayed at Basildon Domestic Violence Forum’s event in the town centre on 25th November when, at noon, four doves were released to symbolise the three women and one child who have been killed as victims of domestic violence in the area this year. The bells of some local churches were tolled 12 times to symbolise the average number of victims who lose their lives in Essex each year due to domestic violence. The poem, He Gave Me Flowers was read at the short reflection that followed in St Martin’s Church, when prayers were offered for victims, survivors and perpetrators.

Visit to Westminster

President Cathy, IPP Janet and PAO Margaret went to meet Rebecca Harris, MP for Castle Point on 23rd November. This visit was to flag up the club’s involvement in UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women day on Friday 25th.

Rebecca has visited the club and knows of our work. She is an effective supporter of education and rights for women, and as a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Afghanistan, is concerned about involving women in peace negotiations, so there was plenty to talk about. She thanked the club for their clear lobbying letters on important issues relating to women – Rebecca is one MP who always responds!

Rebecca signed a hand to add to the club’s Hands Banner and added her signature to this week’s campaign A Different World is Possible, which will be launched tomorrow in Basildon.

Club members will also support events on UNite to Eliminate Domestic Violence Day in Rayleigh, Southend and Basildon on Friday.

Our Second Hands Banner

Several members were away, but there was plenty of support for our Hands Banner on Southend seafront on Saturday 3rd September.

It was a glorious day and we shared the terrace by the Sea Life Centre with the Polish Festival – a bonus, as we’ve recently secured our new friendship link with Gdansk – very close to Sopot, Southend’s twin town.

There was a steady stream of visitors all day – from young men on a stag weekend and a group of bikers down from Hertfordshire to our Polish dancers and members of the public, all willing to put their hands up to say NO to domestic violence.

Again, there were poignant moments – the survivors, those still trying to cope and the occasional man wanting support either for himself or because of his own guilt.

A very worthwhile day. Thanks to those members who were there, and to those who didn’t quite make it because parking was so horrendous – but that’s Southend on a sunny day!

Conferences

Several members have attended conferences on VAW projects recently. The STOP THE TRAFFIK conference in Enfield was excellent and we hope to make trafficking a theme of one of our awareness raising events in early 2012.

Members also attended the cwasu [Child and Women Abuse Study Unit] conference Work in Process, Work on Progress at the London Metropolitan University recently and heard some really worthwhile speakers. Six of them were research students explaining their research and discussing implications – one that was particularly interesting was Swati Pande whose research was entitled, ‘Lost for words: talking about sexual violence in Hindi’, which explained how, because there are no Hindi words for certain English words, Hindi women may be hampered when trying to explain domestic violence incidents to police.

The final keynote speaker was Professor Liz Kelly, who is Director of cwasu and heads up the London Met Child and Women’s Abuse Studies Unit. She was extremely good and is clearly highly regarded by all the attendees, who gave her a standing ovation.

We also keep up to date with the End Violence Against Women campaign whose project ‘A Different World is Possible’ encompasses our own concerns about PHSE and Relationships Education in schools. We’re hoping to use this theme as the focus for our awareness raising event in Basildon during DV week in November.

‘Bags for the Refuges’ a joint project with South Essex College

In conjunction with Sherry Lewis, Course Leader of the BND Fashion Promotion Department at South Essex College – Southend Annex, we have held a competition for students to design a bag for our donations to the Refuges.

Practically all the first year students in the department took part and the choice of designs was extremely interesting. The students had thought carefully about their brief – not only to make the bags interesting and colourful but also thoughtfully including ideas to reflect their use. The bags used sustainable and recycled materials, since this was the requirement for their College module this term.

On 4th March, Lynne and Margaret went along to judge the bags. After much deliberation, three winners were selected. Georgina Bailey, Georgina Fitt and Laura Turner received £50 cheques as prizes and all students who participated received a certificate of appreciation to include in their professional portfolio.

Photographs of the bags are available at club meetings, but won’t be advertised, to protect the privacy of women at the refuge. A good project with very worthwhile links – we hope to repeat it next year.

End Violence Against Women Week – our club makes its mark

Members of SI Southend-on-Sea and District turned out to support Domestic Violence Awareness Week. On November 23rd, working with local police and Womens Aid, they gathered together 63 members of the public for their photo-shoot. This is the number of women in the Southend area who report domestic abuse every week.

Immediate Past President Jackie Daniels, one of the members who represents the club on the local Domestic Violence Forum, said, ‘We just wanted people to realise the size of the problem locally.’

The club is a regular supporter of Safer Places in both Basildon and Southend and has been complimented by Women’s Aid staff as ‘Soroptimists – Great friends of our refuges!’

Violence Against Women – STOP IT NOW! Hands Banner in Basildon – A Great Success

The Hands Banner event on Saturday 4th September, in Basildon Eastgate Centre was a great success! All day the banner was available for people to put up their hands to STOP violence against women and members were kept very busy.

Baroness Angela Smith of Basildon was on hand early in the morning to join the club and both Angela and her husband put their hands on the banner. Angela said, ”I’ve always opposed violence, particularly violence against women. I strongly support the work of Basildon Women’s Aid and applaud local Soroptimists for tackling this problem.”

Throughout the day, shoppers and their families added their hands with their names. In some cases, poignant messages were also added. Club President Janet said, “As well as written messages, several women shared distressing experiences.”

The club distributed Loves Me – Loves Me Not bookmarks, which describe how a good relationship should be, and the actions that point to abuse in a relationship. These were well received by both adults and teenagers. Janet added, “Thankfully, many of the women who spoke to us are survivors, though it’s very sad that some are still in abusive relationships. The refuge in Basildon does a great job.” By the end of the day over 700 shoppers had put their hands up.

Staff from Basildon Women’s Aid were also there to support. Women could speak in total confidence and in some cases be referred for help.

President Janet said, “This is a major campaign for Soroptimists in the United Kingdon. Violence Against Women affects all sectors of society and by raising awareness about how domestic violence can alter the lives of families, Soroptimists hope that women will have the courage to say ‘NO – enough is enough!’ and that they will seek help to leave abusive relationships.”

The banner will now be used to promote their Violence Against Women – STOP IT NOW! campaign both locally and nationally, but the club will ensure the privacy of signatories.

Trolley Dash in Westcliff

Following a good idea from another club, the Southend Club organised a trolley dash. It was part fund-raiser but partly for publicity for the club. The Somerfields-Cooperative store in Westcliff was the venue and the dash took place on Sunday morning. The raffle draw had resulted in the winner (who wished to remain anonymous) donating the prize to the Balmoral Centre, and a Westcliff family was nominated to benefit. Ros was dashing around the store for 10 minutes with her trolley to gather £200 of goods.

The Southend and District club had organised the event to raise funds for their year long President’s project, The Balmoral Community Centre in Westcliff. President Janet (2010 – 2011) said “I chose The Balmoral Centre for our fundraising this year because I was very impressed by the work that has been done there. The Centre has been turned from a near derelict building into something that the local community can be proud of. They run programmes for children including the Street Tough Challenge, which promotes healthy lifestyles, provides fun exercise, raises self-esteem and gives self-confidence, especially amongst young girls.”

The Balmoral Centre works hard to support the community in this neighbourhood, where the residents come from a range of cultures and backgrounds. Stephanie Stamp, their Chairman, thanked Southend Soroptimists and Maria at the store for organising the event. She added, “It was wonderful to see Ros’s lovely family and to know that they all enjoyed such a great experience.”

Programme Action in our club

The Programme Action Committee meets regularly to consider our projects, set dates and plan events or service activities. We have a brilliant little A4 tri-fold that keeps our members up-to-date with what’s going on.

Recent News

The Programme Action Committee met again in November to plan our Action for the coming year. As shown on our Autumn-Winter tri-fold we have a lot going on.

We’ve increased our lobbying to support the Elimination of Violence Against Women and have sent letters about Child Marriage – an iniquitous practice which prevents women from continuing in education and which must be stopped. Our local MPs have been bombarded! Letters have also been sent to raise the issues of trafficking in our area and the removal of PHSE from the compulsary curriculum in the Education Act. Our MPs have responded and we have made sure that our points have been raised in the right committees.

Four members attended the STOP THE TRAFFIK global summit – inspirational – which featured their Global Travel alert, and we shall focus some energy on this next spring before the Olympics start in our area – we’re considering this as our focus for UN International Women’s Day.

We’ve kept up our support of both local refuges – in Basildon and Southend. All the women in both refuges will receive Christmas presents, and we’ll continue to provide welcome packs every month. We’ve extended our collections by involving other groups of women – and they have responded generously. Club members too, are very generous – thank you Sue and Chris for co-ordinating this work. Our Hands Banner events in Basildon and Southend supported our UKPAC campaign – Violence Against Women – STOP IT NOW! and we’re holding another awareness raising event in Basildon Eastgate Centre on 24th November – ‘A Different World is Possible.’ We shall support the other local UN UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women events in the area on Friday 25th November – dove releases in Basildon and Rayleigh and the bus in Southend.

Ongoing Action

We have a range of on-going projects – we keep up our ACTION all year, every year.

• Support for the Womens Refuge in Southend and Basildon – a toiletry bag for every woman
• Raising awareness of every woman’s right to live with equality and without fear
• Raising awareness of every woman’s right to be educated and respected
• Christmas gifts for women in both refuges
• 2p coin collection for the UNICEF - Born Free
• Recycling by ensuring that we support our local initiatives
• Lobbying our MPs about issues important to Soroptimists

Linked to our Programme Action, every year our club agrees to support a local charity nominated by the President. President Cathy’s chosen charity is SOUTHEND YOUNG CARERS and we are raising money for their local work throughout the year 2011 – 2012.

Club fund-raising and social activities to support PA this year -

• A Coffee Morning and Bring and Buy in May
• A Summer Lunch in a member’s garden in June
• Cream Tea at Porters – the mayor’s house in Southend in August
• Lunch at the Essex Yacht Club in November

Look at our President’s Projects page for more information about the club presidents’ projects from the past

Our Friendship Links Club in Zimbabwe needs support. Catherine, our Friendship Links co-ordinator, again held a coffee morning to raise much needed cash. We were able to send off a generous donation to help with Soroptimist work in Harare.

• We try to send food packets on a regular basis
• We collect money
• We meet our contact when we can

Regional Action

The club supported our Regional Project in Malawi

• We raised money to kit out two football teams
• We provided enough money for winter clothes
• We had a frugal meal and made a donation for furniture for a classroom
• We held a book sale on UN Literacy Day and donated £41 – our club’s share for the ‘toilets fund’
• We had a collection after our Christmas meal and raised £125

International Action

The club donated over £2 000 to Project SIerra, our last international quadrennial project which raised £1 000 000 world-wide to support women in Sierra Leone in rebuilding their lives after civil war.

We are fully committed to Fairtrade shopping.

Each year, we support UN World Water Day, UN Day of Literacy, International Day of Peace, UN UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women Day and Humna Rights Day.

We held a major event for UN International Day of Peace on 21st September 2008 and hosted the Regional Council Meeting and Peace Vigil at Lawford on 25th September 2010 when again, a Peace Vigil was held.

Look at our UN International Day of Peace page for information about our Peace Vigil