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This Year’s Meetings – were you there?

February 19th – The plight of many we work for

Tonight’s speakers were from Southend-on-Sea Domestic Abuse service, who spoke about the new local provision, and its links with other services. We’re pleased to say our welcome bags are still welcome, and there was a request for new children’s story books and single bed linen. The other speaker was from a refugee camp in Greece that deals with refugees from Afghanistan. Her work was with the men, women and children in the camp. The ‘camp’ experience was depressing for all – adults and children alike – and brought home to members the plight of many in the world, who are very much less fortunate than we are. Both speakers were very interesting and strengthened our resolve to campaign – A Better World is Possible. We prepared for our International Women’s Day White Ribbon event in Southend and were updated with Regional and Federation news.

January 15th – a new year!

Sorry but our webmanager wasn’t at this one – incapacitated by a cough, but the meeting went well, with a review of our Programme and plans for Membership Month in May – watch this space!

December – our Christmas Celebration

Every year our December meeting is a celebration for the festive season. We enjoy a special meal together and then have a table quiz, organised by Cathy … looking very different from the way she usually does!

November 20th

Brilliant meeting last night – welcomed our new member, Heather, our speaker Barbara told us about her project (starts January 2018) for a Bereavement Support group in Southend, then we heard all the news from UKPAC and then ….. packed 16 Christmas bags for homeless women in Southend to send to HARP and loads of mini-toiletries packs for the women in hospital! Whew! Lovely to see three students from East London Uni – hope you enjoyed it – we certainly enjoyed meeting you all.

October 17th Good meeting last night – lots planned for the coming year.

We welcomed our speakers from YMCA and Sasha told us all about the wide range of work they undertake – whew! A very worthwhile partnership which we recommend to other clubs. So much of their work has a similar focus to the work we do.

September 18th – Our Regional Project

At our meeting tonight, it was good to have Rosa – a member of the the Great Yarmouth club – with us to update us on our Regional Project, Neat Feet, Happy Hands, working in a part of Kenya. The project treats jigger, a nasty little bug that burrows into the skin, lays its eggs and cripples its host. 8000 children were treated in the first year and although there have been some difficulties with communications, clearly a very worthwhile venture. Thanks for co-ordinating the project SI Gt Y and thanks Rosa for coming all this way to update us!

Lovely to welcome our new member Eileen who has worked with us over the last few months – what a lady! Very pleased you have joined us, Eileen.

We are recruiting at the moment so if you are interested, get in touch.

July 17th – Our President’s Project for the year

Tonight our new member, Rachel, received her badge. Rachel, whose mum Carol is a member, has been to a couple of meetings, likes what we do, and joined! It was good to see two or three more interested women at our meeting – President Sharon told us to get our message out there, and it seems to be working.

We also heard from Dawn and Sairah from Manna’s Arc, this year’s club President’s Project, telling us about their plans for the therapeutic Basic Skills centre for adults and children in Essex. What a project! We are really pleased to support their work – thanks to both women for joining us tonight and keeping us in touch about how things are progressing.

June 20th – our Federation Project

Faith Marchal – Regional Ambassador for SIGBI Federation’s Meru Garden project was with us this evening to inform us about this amazing project.

A few guests and another ‘daughter member’, well done Carol for persuading your daughter to join, that makes two of us with a family tradition!

Faith told us about the Meru Women’s Garden Project, which our Federation runs in Kenya in conjunction with Child.org – we seem to be making headway in Educating, Enabling and Empowering the women so that their lives are improved. Over £56 000 raised so far – and another 2+ years to go. Faith gave us loads of information and is an engaging speaker – we all enjoyed the talk as well as gaining a much better understanding of this well-organised and effective project that not only feeds families but has a positive impact on communities.

A business meeting followed with an update on our plans for the year – there’s a lot to get on with!

May 15th – Bring a Friend

Great meeting tonight! Several guests for our Bring a Friend meeting, lovely atmosphere, lots of info about all our projects and President Sharon presenting John from the SOS Buses with a cheque from last year’s club fund-raising. Mix that with a very nice meal and a glass of wine – a perfect Soroptimist evening! Come back soon, guests, it was lovely to see you! Next month – the Meru Project, and in July, our speaker from Manna’s Ark – this year’s President’s Project – one of our guests this month, so some of us had a preview!