Andrea Ryan is presented with her award for 35 years as a Soroptomist at one of the clubs regular lunches for retired and current members. Many thanks to Susan Greenwood for organising these lovely occasions.
Membership Month of May Being a younger member as I am regularly referred, I am often asked “Why are you a Soroptimist?”. It seemed fitting to answer this question as part of SIGBI’s membership month of May. The truth is, there isn’t one simple answer. It was a gradual affair, peaked through my own interest on meeting such an incredible group of women. It started when SI Bristol invited my place of work, a female only offenders day service to a conference on Reducing Women’s Imprisonment. I expected to turn up with a stand, hand out some leaflets and be on my merry way. I found I was inspired by these women, putting themselves forward to make the voices of female offenders heard. They were all so organised and passionate about their cause I found myself surprised that I had never heard of them and my
Bristol Soroptimists celebrated its 96th charter (10th May) last evening by welcoming its youngest member to the club. Megan Grace with her mother Laura and husband Rowan attended her first meeting and enjoyed all the attention she received. President Pauline said she was delighted to welcome such a young member to the club especially on this occasion when it was celebrating its 96th year.
In February Soroptimists and friends decided to beat the Winter blues by holding a Cava and Canapés lunch party for our project in Peru. The Padre Pio de Pietrelcina School in Lima is welcoming the pupils back for their Autumn term while we are anticipating a warmer Spring in Bristol. We are hoping to see past Soroptimist member Sylva later this Summer when we will be able to present her with a substantial donation to enable this educational work in Lima to continue to develop.
Following SI Bristol’s successful Gift Box hosting in 2014 to raise awareness of Human Trafficking, we have kept an avid interest in local charities who are seeking to eliminate slavery and exploitation within the UK and beyond. We were delighted to be invited by Bristol based charity Unchosen to have a stand at their event on 2nd March entitled “Bristol stands against Sexual Exploitation”. Unchosen believes that film is a powerful tool that explains Modern Slavery in ways words cannot. The event was a chance for SI Bristol to watch the films created by Unchosen to raise awareness of sexual exploitation, followed by a Q&A on sexual exploitation and the implications of the Modern Slavery Act. The films were introduced by Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens, an active partner and supporter of Unchosen and were well received by all as a realistic and moving portrayal of
On the afternoon of December 8th Gish Hobbs and Denise Matthews visited Eden House to oversee a Christmas themed craft session. We had prepared a variety of activities including card making, a table decoration using fresh foliage, and a handmade tree decoration which involved a lot of glueing. We provided all the necessary materials and some simple advice on methods. Eight ladies attended ( as well as a member of Eden House staff) and all showed enthusiasm and interest in the ideas we presented.Most of the ladies completed two activities, seemed pleased with their efforts and in some cases showed remarkable ingenuity in problem solving ways of making the tree decorations stick together! There was constant conversation amongst everyone during the couple of hours we were there and it was generally an enjoyable afternoon.
The vision for beginning an Allotment Project at Eden House came from SI Bristol brainstorming how they could best respond to 2015 being Bristol’s year as European Green Capital. A piece of land approximately 20ft by 10ft was identified as ideal for an allotment. It is an Eden House allotment – volunteers from SI Bristol work under the Client Lead’s direction and garden by way of support to the Clients. Week 1 – 7 April 2015 Four members of SI Bristol met with Penny, the Client Lead. Sue Oakey, a garden and allotment expert also came to advise on how best to plan the allotment and to give other useful gardening tips. The vision was to have a seated area under a tree planted with flowers, where Clients could sit and chat with their workers in confidence as well as plenty of fruit and vegetables that the women
STOP PRESS SUCCESS STORY! Bristol Soroptimists have raised enough money through their Spend a Penny Campaign to fund the building of a whole school toilet block in Muyebe – an extremely poor rural village in Uganda. We’ve helped young girls, like Bridget below, be able to look forward to a much healthier future and with no disruption to their education. Find out more about Toilet Twinning at www.toilettwinning.org SI Bristol – Spend a Penny Campaign Aim: By donating a coin or two every time we go to the loo, to raise enough funds to become a toilet twinned Soroptimist group in Bristol. What does this mean? By sponsoring and twinning a toilet (or toilet block) in a developing country, we’ll be providing basic sanitation, fresh water and hygiene education to a family or community who, at present, have none. Why support toilet twinning? Lack of
July saw the return of Sylva Von Bomsdorff for a short holiday from her home in Peru and we were delighted to hear news of the latest happenings at her small School in Lima. Due to the fact that Lima has been experiencing an unusual level of heavy, fine rain which the original flat roof was not designed to manage, it has been necessary to improve the slope and drainage for the roof, something outside their planned budget. However, a small increase to the salary has enabled the School to continue to employ the dedicated teaching team and pupil levels are almost at the maximum for the classrooms available, although only around 30% are able to pay their full fees. Income continues to be juggled by Sylva and her team to ensure education is available wherever possible for those with little income. An additional expense
Sky Ride Bristol … Members of SI Bristol joined Bristol Rotary Club to help marshal Sky Ride Bristol on Sunday 21 June. Cycling fever hit Bristol as all types of riders and abilities rode through traffic-free city centre streets to raise funds for their favourite charities. A formidable pair of Soroptimists made sure that the route they were responsible for was kept clear for the cyclists! Induction of new Rotary President … The annual changeover of Presidents for Bristol Rotary took place on Monday 29 June. SI Bristol, who have a special relationship with Rotary, were represented at this annual event which began with a short church service in The Lord Mayor’s Chapel opposite College Green – a beautiful setting and building. The Revd Harold Clarke who conducted the service had been a Bristol Rotarian. He spoke of his recent trip to Sri Lanka where
