At our club meeting on June 24th, we welcomed Yuko Tsuji who is a member of our Soroptimist Friendship Link from SI Aquarmarine Kure near Hiroshima, Japan.   Yuko has made 3 visits to our club and we always love seeing her and as usual exchanged gifts.  She told us about her club’s ongoing project which is to raise funds for the disastrous flooding her area received last year.  There were 800 landslips which destroyed bridges, roads and train lines and 200 people lost their lives, Their latest event to raise funds is a concert on August 11th when a very well-known orchestra from Tokyo will be playing.   We wish them well and hope that the concert will be very successful.

Lynn Ellis is the Friendship Link with our Japanese Soroptimist sisters. Yuko Tsuji is our contact . She has twice attended our club meetings since we started our link. Lynn was able to meet up with her last summer, when she was over here to visit her son at school. Yuko was over here in March, but her business was such that we were not able to meet up. However, Yuko might be coming here in May. I hope so! Yuko has sent recent news from her club News from Yuko Tsuji (Yuko is top left as you look at the photograph) Our club candidate for Soroptimist Ruby Award received the 2nd place for Japan Nishi Region just recently. I will share articles with photos later. The award winner is a female journalist who used to be our member who went into affected areas of

Meeting up with our Friendship links is a pleasure and we try and do this at least once a year.  We are delighted that Lynn was able to catch up with Yuko Tsuji from SI Aquamarine Kure, Japan when she last visited the West Country. Lynn has close links with Yuko and long may it continue. As usual SI Bristol Soroptimists who attend the conference in Liverpool at the end of October hope to meet up with friends from our UK Friendship Link Clubs. Liz N is trying to make contact with SI Bootle, SI Halifax and SI Chester to arrange this. Watch this space. Photo to follow

SI Bristol is fortunate to have established Friendships Links with the following Soroptimist clubs. We have twice enjoyed a visit from Yuko Tsuji from SI Aquamarine Kure, which is situated near Hiroshima, Japan. Soroptimists from SI Bautzen have visited Bristol. A very pleasant friendship weekend was held and Bristol Soroptimists proudly showed off the city to their visitors. A return visit was made to Bautzen the following November.  A tour of Berlin was made before travelling to Bautzen. Members were very warmly welcomed by Soroptimists and their families at a supper evening. The weekend continued with cultural visits around the interesting ancient town. Each year, SI Bristol Soroptimists who attend  the yearly conference held in November, have enjoyed meeting friends from our Friendship Links Clubs.  It has been wonderful to catch up on news with our friends from SI Bootle and SI Bangalore each year.

SI Bristol welcomed Yuko Tsuji to our supper and speaker meeting on  July 11th. Yuko was the Japanese Friendship  Link Officer when her club Kure Aquamarine  and SI Bristol  started their Friendship Link. SI Kure Aquamarine club is near to Hiroshima in Japan. Yuko took the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Bristol after collecting her son Huma from his school in Malvern. Yuko presented SI Bristol with a lovely collection of Japanese sweets. President Pauline presented Yuko with a gift to take to the members of Kure Aquamarine. This is the third time Yuko has visited us. It is always a delight to see her again.