2011 – 2012 Meetings
March 20th – World Water Day
Our speaker this evening was a worker for Water Aid, who described the horrendous conditions endured by many of the world’s poor.
Collecting water from puddles and open streams is the norm for many people in India and Pakistan and we were pleased to be able to contribute £100 – a drop in the ocean – for Life Straws, to improve the lot of a few of them.
Our business meeting followed, with a report and evaluation of our International Women’s Day event and forward planning for the new Soroptimist year.
February 20th – update from the refuge
Sue and Cathy from the Southend refuge came along this evening to update us on their work, particularly their new projects.
They now have more outreach workers like the ones who work with the Polish community, and with the elderly to monitor elder abuse. This diversity puts more strain on resources but is very necessary. There is a mentoring project at Centre Place and this too is proving successful. The children’s provision has been extended – sadly very necessary since there has been an increase in the number of women and families seeking help.
Cathy and Sue thanked the club again for our support in making sure that every women who comes into the refuge has a welcome bag of essential toiletries – it gives a little pampering at a low point in life and reassures the woman that someone cares. For women who use the refuge, this can be the beginning on the road to recovering self esteem and a new life.
At our business meeting that followed, there was a good deal of discussion about the recent Annual Lunch and our forthcoming International Women’s Day – which of course takes place before the next meeting.
January 16th - a club evening
Every member who was in the country (!) and fit, attended the January meeting and there was a real buzz of anticipation as we looked back over 2011 and forward to 2012.
Over Christmas, as well as sending 200 presents to the refuges for the women and children, we sent 16 parcels to our link club in Harare to support them with their work with children and the elderly. We wished them all a very Happy Christmas!
Our major planning tonight was for our new members evening on 25th, our Programme Action meeting on 26th and our Annual Lunch on 12th February at the Cliffs Pavilion Maritime Room. Together with booking the date of our International Women’s Day celebration -10th March at Royal Square at 11.30am - we discussed our Programme Action for the coming year. A very busy evening!
December 12th – Our Christmas Meal
We had a great time at our Christmas meal! Our regular venue provided lovely food – as usual – and friends and partners joined us for a delightful evening of pleasant conversation and conviviality.
We have been fortunate in having several interested women at our meetings recently and President Cathy was delighted to welcome a new member – Margaret.
We find that women are mainly interested in the ACTION of our Soroptimist Programme Action – it’s been our biggest recruitment lure and at the dinner, we continued our collection of Christmas gifts for the women in our two local refuges. In all, we managed to collect 200 gifts to be distributed to both refuges for women and children and for the refuge outreach services.
Our gang-of-four took them away to wrap and spent a good deal of time on the task, but when it was finally done, they took them to Basildon and Southend Safer Places where they were thanked warmly for the gifts and for the year long commitment the club gives to both refuges.
The December allocation of toiletry bags had already been delivered in anticipation of the ‘post-Christmas rush’ for the refuges. Yet again, the staff and women were very grateful to us and one of the young women who had just been admitted was somewhat bewildered when she was introduced to us as ‘Soroptimists – good friends to women in refuges’
November 21st – Programme Action
Tonight’s meeting was a full one – business and Programme Action, which is what we do as Soroptimists, took up the whole evening.
We have lots to lobby about and lots to do! It’s United Nations UNite to Eliminate Violence Agaisnt Women week, so we’re off to see Rebecca Harris MP on Wednesday, holding an awareness-raising event in Basildon Eastgate Centre on Thursday and supporting UNite to EVAW day on Friday in Rayleigh, Basildon and Southend.
We’re also lobbying in connection with Handicap International Forgotten 10 challenge – we’ll be alerting our MPs to the fact that we don’t see it as acceptable that cluster bombs, which are banned, should still be financed by institutions in this country.
October 17th – A Visit from Our Federation Councillor
We were pleased to welcome some prospective members at our meeting tonight. There was a lively atmosphere and we had a good meal.
We had a visit from Becky, a local Girl Guide, who has been selected to undertake a Gold challenge in Sri Lanka later this year. We had collected at our SAVs frugal meal and were able to present her with a cheque for £150 towards her travel costs.
We were delighted that our Federation Councillor, Joyce could also be with us. She spoke about her role – its responsibilities and her enjoyment of the work she does on our behalf.
When Joyce had finished outlining the intricacies of the constitution for our organisation, a long-standing member Sue said, ’Thank you for doing the job, Joyce, it’s not everyone’s cup-of-tea!’
We followed Joyce’s talk with a business meeting, when we were reminded of the forthcoming events – the President’s fund-raising lunch on 5th November and our event to celebrate UNite to Eliminate Violence Against Women Day in Basildon Eastgate on 24th November. Plans are also afoot for our Christmas meal, which takes the place of our usual December meeting.
A really convivial club evening!
September 19th – Kenya Orphans Fund and Uganda Project
Our speaker tonight was from KOFUP, a project in Kenya and Uganda that supports similar groups to our own Project SIerra in Sierra Leone. KOFUP was formed in 2000 when the AIDS crisis was at its height – parents were dying and leaving children looked after by siblings and something needed to be done.
Trish White became involved with financing support work, and eventually KOFUP was formed and given charitable status. There are now nine projects in Kenya and one in Uganda, and Trish visits on a regular basis.
Cash is used to buy food and medicine and to fund capital projects. The charity tries to keep children in their own communities and funds several education projects, enabling children to receive primary schooling by supplying uniforms and secondary schooling by funding school fees. They have raised approximately £350 000 to date and have helped large numbers of children.
Trish described Temo School in Kenya, where one third of the pupils are orphans. The headteacher is sympathetic to the children’s needs and has provided a delightful environment for learning. He has addressed the issue of poor attendance by the girl pupils by providing showers and toilets for them, so that their education continues – many previously stayed at home for several days during the month. Trish is known as Momma Always since KOFUP provides sanitary towels for the girls!
At another project, at a girls’ secondary school in Kenya, KOFUP pays the school fees for 40 girls.
Kenya has been subjected to violence since 2007 and the need for support is great. Another area of KOFUP’s work is small business start-up schemes. For example, Trish met a taxi driver in 2008, who had been shot in the head and as a result of that meeting, supported his wife in setting up an income generating business buying and selling fish, so that with this small grant, she is now able to support her two children. Trish assured the club that 100% of donations goes to the project since the trustees and workers fund their own travel.
A very worthwhile project, which the club supported with donations for UN Literacy Day, collecting £100 after the meal.
Trish’s talk was followed by a business meeting where we heard about the success of the recent Hands Banner, and forthcoming Programme Action projects.
July 18th – Canine Partners and Guests
Several members were on holiday this month, so missed Lindsay, our informative speaker from Canine Partners. Lindsay explained that the charity has been in existance for 21 years, providing worker dogs to help disabled people. Stephanie brought along her ‘partner’ Elmo and explained how helpful he is in managing routine chores like unloading the washing machine and taking off her socks!The dogs are trained to help owners get out of bed, to get dressed, to open doors, press buttons, pick up keys, empty a washing machine, help in the garden and much more depending on the disability of the owner.
We were joined by members of the East London club, our mother club, who seemed to enjoy themselves and were somewhat amazed by how much we managed to get done! It was good to have them with us – and to keep up our contact with them.
We also welcomed a new member, Jane but unfortunately our Girl Guide contact couldn’t make it. She’s going off to a WAGGGS gold project in Sri Lanka in the winter and we have a cheque to help out so we’re looking forward to seeing her soon, to hand it over.
June 20th – Programme Action at SAVS
Our meeting this month was at Southend Voluntary Services headquarters in the town centre and their CEO Alison started off our meeting by telling us about the organisation and their work. The club has joined SAVS, so we’re interested to see how our link will develop.
Instead of our usual meal, SAVS served us with a frugal meal – though that could be an understatement since they always provide us with a lovely spread – jacket potatoes with a range of fillings and a delicious fresh fruit salad to follow! However, by paying our usual fee, deducting our outgoings for the evening and holding a raffle, we managed to collect a nice sum. This will be given to a local Girl Guide, Becky, who has been selcted to go on the WAGGGS GOLD project to Sri Lanka.
The evening that followed was hectic! We’d decided to fill sufficient toiletries bags to meet the demand of both local refuges for July and August, so we were very busy!
Our PAC report included information on our support for UKPAC’s VAW-SIN! Project – we have a number of awareness raising events planned for the coming year and all the time are increasing our knowledge and involvement. Cathy and Margaret attended the cwasu (Child and Women Abuse Unit) conference at London Met University to find out about recent research and we’re also supporting the EVAW campaign for preventing violence of all forms.
A busy meeting and busy times!
May 16th – Our President’s Project Speaker
President Cathy started off her year with a talk by Angelina Clarke from Southend Young Carers. Cathy has asked the club to support the group as her nominated President’s Project for the year.
Several events have been organised as fund-raising activities and the first was a coffee morning at Jackie’s house, when Cathy provided some excellent cakes! The event raised over £100 so this was a good start to building up our donation which will be handed over at the end of this year.
April 18th – Our Annual General Meeting
The AGM always gives us time to reflect on the year that’s gone and to anticipate what’s to come. What a year we’ve had!
President Janet was a dynamic leader and rolled up her sleeves to get involved at every event. Before the AGM, Janet presented a cheque for over £1000 to Stephanie from the Balmoral Centre – the result of the President’s Project fund-raising over the last year.
We had a superb year and incoming President Cathy was warm in her thanks as she took over tonight.
We’re all looking forward to continuing the great Programme Action work that’s been going on in the club in the past few years and Cathy got us off to a good start by telling us her plan of campaign for the year and seeking our support for her own President’s Project – Southend Young Carers.
IPP Jackie took this pic which shows just what Janet thought about giving the responsibility to Cathy!
We had one or two resignations from office and Cathy thanked the retiring officers for their work. We’re pleased to say that we have a full list of officers again this year – no Vice President, but we’ve already agreed that when our President Elect, Sharon takes over next year, she will serve for two years. This will see us through the planning and into the celebrations of sixty years of Soroptimism in Southend and District, which we celebrate in October 2013.