Violence Against Women and Girls Soroptimist International has taken as the focus for International Women’s Day on 8th March “Violence against Women and Girls” saying “Enough is Enough”. The UN Secretary General has said that ”violence against women must never be accepted, never be excused and never tolerated”. WHO estimates that one third of the world’s female population is beaten, raped or abused. Recently highly publicised examples are of Malala in Pakistan shot for attending school and a young Delhi woman murdered for being with a male companion in a public place. But the problem is much closer to home. Barnardo’s tell us that in the UK there is an annual 22% increase in child sex abuse and 84% are internally trafficked. Nine men are presently on trial in Oxford for abusing girls as young as 11years and selling them on for sex. SI are

NORTH DOWN TALKING NEWSPAPER National Talking Newspapers and Magazines (NTNM) was set up in 1974 and provides national newspapers and magazines in a variety of accessible formats. All the reading, which amounts to thousands of hours each year, is undertaken entirely by volunteers, and members of our Club and their friends have joined them under our Programme Action programme. Plans are well in hand to start the recording of the North Down Talking Newspaper at the beginning of April.  This could only have happened with the help and support from the following people.  We thank Brian Wilson, MLA, who has kindly agreed that we may use his office to do our recording. We also thank the Society Working Group of Thales for their generous funding and Club members for their donations, all of which has enabled us to purchase the equipment we need.  RNIB have