Jackie Paling, Assistant Programme Director for Violence and Conflict Resolution gave a talk at Regional Council on 14th June about Afghan Women.The lives of women in Afghanistan were very different from ours in the UK with problems arising from forcible resettlements in the past, the presence of landmines and cultural attitudes which left women’s lives  controlled by men. Jackie had been to Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 and related how she had been able to encourage women to extend their craft skills, produce honey, buy fruit trees and farm stock. Violence against women is a crime there but the law is not enforced. The view of the world from behind a bhurka was shared briefly by those who tried some on as shown in this photo.

Jasvinder Sanghera speaks at the Karma Nirvana Conference which was held locally recently. One of our members attended this informative event and has provided us with a precis of Karma’s address. This was a useful update on the circumstances leading to the Karma Nirvana charity being established. Its aims are-  to increase reporting of forced marriage and honour based violence, reduce the isolation of victims and save their lives. Jasvinder has spent 20 years working in this area, using her personal experience to assist others. Legislation is about to be introduced to make forced marriage and honour based violence an offence, and we will keep a watching brief on the impact of this new law.

On 16th May some of our avid readers met for one of our occasional “Book Club ” events. Kirsteen, our President was the host who dazzled us with her delicious cooking. The book under discussion was Me Before You- a novel by Jo Jo Moyes which has a serious theme. The content gave us a lot to talk about.This evening was in aid of our STEM Project. (See elsewhere for further infomation.) £160 was raised at this very enjoyable evening. Thank you Kirsteen for all you did.

A Fun Quiz attracted the “Brains of Bournemouth” and many other teams last month. Held at the University Campus, we were pleased to get our fish and chip supper served before we had to deal with the questions. This event was to raise funds for two of our charities- The Stem Challenge ( encouraging girls to consider science and technology careers) and the Friends of Bournemouth Women’s Refuge. A total of £867 was raised and a lot of fun had during the evening.

  This is one of the delicious puddings we sampled at our “Pudding Club” event. Hosted by Julia,who kindly provided a main course, we then sampled five different puddings -mini portions of course, and enjoyed a party to raise funds for the Cementing Futures Educational  Charity. In between the courses we had some quizzes, and that rare genre- pudding poems and much laughter. Thank you all who put sensible eating on hold for an evening. £410 was raised which will educate many children in Dhaka, Bangladesh in the coming year.

After the success of 2013, we repeated our Celebrating Science challenge, to encourage girls to consider careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.13 teams from 7 different schools took part in our competition, coming up with ideas to help the poorest people in the world. Each team had to design, build and cost a product which would do this. It had to be sustainable, fit for purpose as well as cost effective. The winners for 2014 are-   Avonbourne School Team for their exciting ergonomic all terrain water carrier. This aims to help women and children who have to fetch and carry water for long distances in many developing countries. Highcliffe School Team, Christchurch – for their “SOLAHEDRON“ promoting a portable, collapsible solar cooker to enable the heating of foodstuffs and water to be done anywhere.  Teams from Arnewood Academy, New Milton, with their project “RIVER SPLITTING”

Borrowing a “Santa Express Road Train”  plus  driver and high vis tabards  from the Poole Bay Rotary we  raised £250- 61p for our Cementing Futures Charity one damp evening in December. The road train was expertly backed and turned in cul de sacs round a local estate playing an entertaining mixture of carols and other seasonal music. Children and senior citizens responded to the unexpected blast of Christmas Music with generous donations. One member with a pedometer revealed we had walked 4.8 miles along the streets and up and down peoples drives. The photos were taken at the end of the evening and as you can see we were still smiling! Thanks to Geoff for playing Santa and to Pete for the expert driving.

Part of a Club Newsletter was recently found by a Club Member who was having a clear out. Interesting to read about past projects and see how similar they were to the ones we have now. Sadly some of the people mentioned are no longer with us, but Pam Smith whose marriage is referred to in the last couple of lines is still attending meetings.   .

Penny Bartlett, President of SI Southern Region shares a joke with Sylvia and Tina At the Regional Party at Conference.

Two of our members attended the Conference in the Sage at Gateshead. We met many friends, heard interesting speakers and also went to parties. Here are some of the things we did. The middle photo was taken at a Friendship Lunch hosted by Penrith. We were honoured to be gate crashed in the best possible way by Ann Garvie, President of Soroptimist International and Ulla Madsen, President of SI Europe who comes from Denmark. In the same photo is Jahane Gulshan from Dhaka, Bangladesh.