Bobbie White, long standing member of SI Bournemouth, was recently in New Zealand and attended the annual Conference of Clubs at SI Aotearoa New Zealand. It was held in March 2023 in Rotorua where the 19 clubs in New Zealand from both north and south islands participated.  Bobbie was invited to process with the Union flag with several well-known SI members. Yvonne Simpson (Past President Soroptimist International) carried the UN flag, Christine Johnstone (Federation President SI Southeast Asia Pacific) the Australia flag and Deborah Wood (President SI Aotearoa New Zealand) the New Zealand flag. Bobbie was also honoured to be able to wear the Māori cloak worn previously by Yvonne Simpson and felt very special indeed!

Kiera Mauro was elected President of SI Bournemouth on April 24, 2023 and her very first job in post was to induct three new members to the club. Jenny Dvorak, Anne Mynors-Wallis and Gail Moneypenny were welcomed enthusiastically by all as they each bring life experience, skills and energy to Soroptimism. Kiera shared the duties of Soroptimists with each in turn, offering the right hand of friendship and giving them their badges and information packs. We are delighted to have them on board !

This year saw our 10th STEAM Challenge for girls in years 8 and 9 take place. Participants need to come up with an initiative, device or project that will help to improve the lives of women and girls in other parts of the world. They work in small teams, develop a project plan, and then pitch the idea to experts in the field having created a prototype to support the concept. There was a video shown at the finals of some of the girls who have taken part in the past ten years highlighting how influential the process had been in their subsequent study and career choices. It is a positive opportunity to encourage young women to use their full potential, engaging in roles that would have been seen as the purview of men in the past. The project links to United Nations SDGs 5

In addition to Hill View Primary, now Christchurch Infants and Talbot Primary Schools have taken part in the club’s project to encourage children to avoid and/ or reduce single use plastic (SUP). As at Hill View (described in an earlier post), the children were introduced to the issues at their assemblies and then created posters to demonstrate creative ideas about how to deal with plastic positively. We were pleased to award seven certificates and book vouchers at Christchurch Infants; there are only three years at the school and despite their young age, they came up with some super ideas. At Talbot we awarded fourteen prizes, two per year group, and were similarly impressed by the standard of entry; choosing the winners was difficult but the eco-leaders in the school did the judging with us. Great work all! If you are interested in this or other

On Sunday March 5th, six members of SI Bournemouth joined the other 8 clubs in the South of England region for our first ‘active’ regional meeting. Regional President, Kay Linnell, has started a programme of meetings in which Soroptimists deal with business and sharing in the morning and then go on to engage in community activities in the afternoon that benefit others. We met at Brendoncare Otterbourne Hill for the meeting, were supplied with a lovely lunch by the home and then divided up into groups to undertake a variety of activities. Two groups went outside and cleared, sorted, and planted flowers and bulbs in the garden; another group dealt with indoor plants, brightening up the lovely sunroom for residents; the final group spent the time chatting, reading to and playing games with residents, thoroughly enjoying the engagement. A great way to combine our business

On February 20 2023, David Sidwick, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset attended SI Bournemouth’s supper meeting and five members of SI Poole joined us. The two clubs had joined forces in advance and sent a comprehensive list of questions to David that would provide a focus for our discussion with him. He started by saying they were some of the most searching and insightful questions he had ever received. He then went on to say that he would answer them fully in writing in due course after the meeting as many of them required research and he had not had time to do them justice. He recapped on his progress since taking up his role more than a year ago sharing his six priority areas- cut crime and anti-social behaviour, make policing more visible and connected, fight violent crime and high harm, fight

We have recently had two women join our meetings to share their projects in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and they were inspirational! Sister Tama Mercadi shared her experience of setting up and leading BCP Shout Out (a largely online network that helps link together local people in need with resources), contributing to convoys to Syria and Yemen, working with refugees, victims of abuse, and the homeless. She was an amazing speaker; her energy, enthusiasm, and ability to connect people positively was humbling. For the last two years, she has organised events in the centre of Bournemouth for homeless people to come together on Christmas Day with the community for food, gifts, clothing, haircuts and pamper sessions- all through volunteers. Tracy Blick from the ‘Christchurch Food Bank Plus’ gave a stimulating talk about how the expansion of the food bank is making an enormous contribution to

To mark the SIGBI Day of Action 2022, SIB launched a project with Hill View Primary School to engage pupils with the importance of reducing single use plastic (SUP) in the environment. This project links to previous programmes we have developed- encouraging members in BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole), regionally and nationally to ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’. The aim was to raise awareness and motivate young people to take positive action with their families and friends to reduce SUP now and for the future. The children were introduced to issues relating to SUP in assemblies, were asked to come up with creative ideas about how they can contribute in any small way, and then to capture their ideas on a poster. SIB offered prizes to each year group for the most innovative, interesting and/ or impressive presentation. Five posters were selected, and the winners received book

SIB Attends Volunteer Fair Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council hosted a Volunteer Fair at Bournemouth Central Library on September 9, 2022 to provide information on volunteering opportunities to interested parties. SIB had a stand at the fair to share information about the club, some achievements, our organisation, and membership details. It was an ideal opportunity to increase awareness and reach out to potential members. Two members of the club took a pop up stand and display boards with information about a number of our endeavours- the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) project where we work with teenage girls to increase confidence in non-traditional career opportunities, some of our international projects (for example, Cementing Futures, our charity that funds girls to go to school in Bangladesh), reduce, reuse and recycle focussing on single use plastic, ‘Orange’ days to raise awareness of violence against women and

Trees are essential life partners for all of us as they provide oxygen, food, shelter, medicine, and beauty in the environment. Two events have taken place recently in BCP to mark the planting of trees, sponsored by Soroptimist International of Bournemouth (SIB) to recognise both the centenary of Soroptimist International in 2021 and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022. On June 17th HM Lord-Lieutenant of Dorset, Mr Angus Campbell, the Chairman of BCP Council, Cllr Nigel Hedges, Deputy Mayor of Bournemouth, David Kelsey and SIB members came together at St Peter’s Primary School with the Head Teacher, staff, and pupils to celebrate the planting of fifteen trees as part of their ‘greening up’ project.   On June 21st a similar event took place with HM Lord-Lieutenant, Chairman of BCP Council, Mayor and Mayoress of Poole, Cllr Tony Trent and Mrs Anne Trent, SIB, and SI