We were delighted to provide 24 Christmas selection boxes for the children of parents in the Refuge in Bridgend. We also gave six Christmas presents to teh mothers in the refuge over Christmas. Nadolig Llawen from members of Soroptimist International Bridgend and District.
Members of SI Bridgend were joined by friends both near and far in their celebrations for International Night. “We usually have a celebration evening on or around 10th December which is UN Human Rights Day.” explains Bridgend Soroptimist President Sharon. “As well as sharing fun and friendship, we use the evening to focus on the Soroptimist International President’s Appeal. The restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic were not going to stop us, and although we acknowledged that it would be a bit different this year, little did we realise how amazing it would be!” Invitations were sent out to join us in our virtual celebrations. Alongside Bridgend members, we welcomed our Regional President Heidi, members from SI Haverfordwest, Cardiff, Swansea and Pontypridd, as well as from our long-standing Friendship link SI Courtenay in British Columbia, Canada. How fantastic it was to see so many smiling
We are sorry to announce that our dear friend Marjorie Page passed away on 18th November after several years of a debilitating illness. Marjorie’s full life ended gently and peacefully, at home surrounded by her family. Marjorie became a Soroptimist in 1988 and although busy as Head of English in a local Comprehensive school immediately took the lead in the education essay writing competition run by Bridgend Soroptimists. She took on the task of getting schools to become involved and then judged the entries – a phenomenal task that Marjorie undertook with great enthusiasm. Marjorie was a very active member of the club, participating in many hands-on projects, as well as debating and taking forward new ideas. Club members and guests enjoyed many happy events at her home as she hosted all manner of events from garden parties to Clarice Cliff talks! The chatter, enjoyment
For 16 Days of Activism starting 25th November to 10th December, Soroptimists everywhere will #OrangetheWorld. Each of the 16 Days that we celebrate marks a step towards women’s rights and a safe space for them. Soroptimist International believes that women’s rights are human rights and through our work in the communities we work with that objective. Beginning with the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25th November, Soroptimists follow UN Days to transform lives of women and girls. We rally against Child Marriages, Human Trafficking, Modern Day Slavery, Rape, Sexual Exploitation, Female Genital Mutilation, Human Rights Defenders and Sexual Harassment at Workplace. On 10th Dec the last day, we honour the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Each day is a call for action and provides a focus for our projects Commemorating these days are opportunities to create public awareness about what needs
Friendship is at the core of being a Soroptimist and today Bridgend Soroptimists showed what international friendship means to them. Soroptimist International Club Friendship Day is celebrated today because it was on the 3rd October 1921 that the first Soroptimist club was founded in California. Alongside the many personal friendships that our members have forged through being part of this amazing International organisation, Soroptimist International Bridgend also has formal friendship links with clubs in Australia, Finland, Pakistan, Canada and the USA. Greetings have been sent to all our friendship links and we are thinking of them all at this difficult time. We were particularly pleased to receive greetings from our Finnish friends in Uusikaupunki. Whilst they too have been suffering the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, they were excited to tell us that they had been able to have a face-to-face meeting in September –
What a strange world we’re living in at the moment! With the Coronavirus crisis and associated restrictions, we are all experiencing an incredible amount of change. We’re having to think differently, do things differently and behave differently. We are all learning to adapt to a new normal. For many the adaptation is easy and for others not so. Bridgend Soroptimists have been adapting too. Our President, Sharon Dixon, has adopted the theme of Mental Awareness and Well-being for 2020-2021. Sharon explains, “When I say well-being, it’s not just the well-being of others, it’s also about self-care and looking after ourselves. Self-care is doing what makes you happy, being with friends, catching up on the telephone, taking a long walk or a glass of wine on the beach. We need to take care of ourselves so that we can help others.” “Little did I realise how
What a strange world we’re living in at the moment! Many of us around the world are living under Covid-19 restrictions and, as a result, several people have been asking us ‘What Are Bridgend Soroptimists Doing During Lockdown?’ As I write this blog post, at the end of May 2020, I’m currently in my 10th week of lockdown, thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world. In that time, I have only left the house to go out for a walk each day and food shopping once a week. Fortunately, we are some of the lucky ones. Although my husband and I are ‘over 60’, we are not as ‘at risk’ as many other people, and we also live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, Porthcawl. It is only a few minutes’ walk from our house to the sand dunes, Newton Burrows and onto
The Coronavirus crisis has meant massive changes to everyone in the world, but naturally those changes have hit women and girls especially hard. The pandemic has also led to a horrifying increase in violence against women. A recent Women’s Hour programme did a feature on how victims of domestic violence – the largest proportion of whom are female – are now more at risk than ever. This is thanks to a perfect storm of being stuck at home on lockdown with their perpetrator, a loss of the usual support services, and added pressures such as lost household income and home-schooling. In short, women who were in a difficult situation before the Covid-19 crisis struck are now experiencing a whole new level of abuse, often with little way out. At this time, the local women’s refuge is often the only port of call, and then it is
The Coronavirus pandemic has meant massive changes for all of us. We have all been restricted by the lockdown and unable to do the things we usually do. For vibrant and active women like the Bridgend Soroptimists this has been very frustrating. So when the call went out from local hospital staff to make cloth bags tied with a drawstring for nurses to use to take home and launder their used uniforms after a hospital shift, our members rallied. Soroptimist Creativity At Work Having found out that old pillowcases, duvet covers and bedsheets provide the perfect materials for the bags, an appeal amongst members resulted in a mass of fabric. A team of four Soroptimists with nimble fingers – Carys, Anne H., Margaret A. and Venetia – set to work and quickly produced 55 scrubs bags. Margaret gave her bags an additional flourish. She used
It’s been a long time in the making, but the new SIGBI website has finally been launched! What do you think? Although the previous website had served SIGBI well for over 10 years, it was rather dated and it decided that a new website was in order. A Website Working Party was set up and the new website project was commenced in Spring 2019. Alongside our members, the project was ably handled by our web design partners, Thule Media. Carl and Sean from Thule Media, a specialist Digital SEO company based in Chorley, Lancashire, took charge of the design, build and optimisation of the website, and were on hand throughout to ensure the job went smoothly. All in all, although it’s taken almost a full year from inception to launch, this new website project turned out to be a fairly smooth and painless process, no
