What a journey this had been. Rayner Rees introduced us to ChoraChori and its CEO Philip Holmes having been impressed with the project when they had gained funding through the Soroptimist International Educate to Lead programme. Philip captured the hearts of Bridgend members when he spoke to us in a Club meeting in November 2017. The idea to propose it as the next Federation project was born and Empowering Girls in Nepal began to take shape.
A small group of members worked on the initial proposal and having been shortlisted everyone got involved. Helen and Rayner together with Philip put the full proposal and presentation together – and then shared their efforts with the whole club. Following an evening of critical review, the presentation was re-worked slide-by-slide, word-by-word! Now we were ready for Liverpool!
Four projects were shortlisted:
- Empowering Girls in Nepal
- HEAL Mayuge
- Think Pink for Sri Lanka
- Women into STEM.
Each project was presented
Philip and Helen took questions from the floor.
The vote was then taken. A nail-biting wait and
…..we won!
Empowering Girls in Nepal is to be the SIGBI Federation Project 2019-2022.
We were so excited and thrilled to be able to support ChoraChori across the Federation. Philip Holmes said, “We are thrilled by this outcome and feel privileged to work with our friends at SIGBI. This is not a grant, it is a collaboration that will be fulfilling for all of us and life-changing for the girls.”