Winners with teachers and VIP guests Soroptimist International Bournemouth has held their Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Challenge for the fifth year attracting more interest from the engineering world than previously. The challenge is for girls only to promote participation and raise aspirations in industries that young women often see as masculine and not for them. Teams of girls from nine schools took part in the challenge with the objective of creating a solution to a problem which will help people in the poorest parts of the world. The girls rose to the Challenge and had some brilliant ideas, well executed projects and interesting models. Prizes of £250 to each winning school and £50 to each team member were presented by Cllr Xena Dion, Mayor of Poole, to the Year 8 winners from St Peters School whose project “3B’s” was an ingenious water filter

    President Bobbie White welcomed Toilet Twinning charity CEO, Lorraine Kingsley, to the February meeting. Lorraine gave an informative talk about the work of the charity which aims to educate people in poverty throughout the world on the benefits of owning their own toilet. Benefits of the project include educating individual families and their communities in personal hygiene and general health; it also means that women and girls are safer from the risk of assault.  2.4billion people in the world do not have toilets in their homes today. The charity encourages organisations and individuals to sponsor a toilet, the materials costing £60 for a household or £240 for a school toilet block; the latter is particularly beneficial to teenage girls who are enabled to attend school due to ensured safety and during menstruation. It was with great pleasure that President Bobbie was able to

This is the message that was given by SI Bournemouth member, Jennifer Scales, who informed members about the work with Roma children in the Ukraine that the Winton Salvation Army ‘Vision of Hope’ Mission carry out every couple of years.  Jennifer is honoured to assist in the work which gives the children a ‘week of childhood’ through sport, arts, crafts, bible stories and general fun. The communities are isolated and very poor so it is the norm for children not to have sufficient clothing especially in winter so the team take as many useful gifts that they can and which generally pushes their baggage allowance to the limit!  

Bournemouth Soroptimists were delighted to support the RNLI’s Women’s Network to celebrate National Women in Engineering Day 2016. Having been inspired by Bournemouth Soroptimists STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) Challenge, in which they formed part of the judging panel, the RNLI Women’s Network decided to set a ‘Safety Message challenge’ to girls at local schools. The prestigious event was held at the RNLI headquarters in Poole where the girls were encouraged to design a ‘cool safety message when on the water which will appeal to young people’. The event began with a list of famous women inventors in STEM based industries but who were also from creative backgrounds and the UN Sustainable Development goals were promoted.  To inspire the students further they visited the ‘Ideas Room’ where ideas were discussed to make a safer ‘sea bubble’ which could ferry people to their workplace. In