At our Club Meeting on 23rd June 2025 we were pleased to welcome Imogen Franklin, Head of Smart Works Bristol. Imogen talked to us about the Smart Works charity, a national charity that supports long-term unemployed women get back to work with coaching and clothing for interviews. Clients are mostly referred by job centres and other Bristol women’s charities but can be referred directly via a website application. Smart Works Bristol will officially launch in late summer/early Autumn having recently taken possession of premises at The Easton Business Centre where they are currently setting up the space for coaching and styling. Please see their website for more in depth information by clicking on the link below: https://bristol.smartworks.org.uk/

SI Bristol completed  part of the Soroptimist National Railway Safety Survey Project. The project was originally launched in 1996 and is being re-launched to celebrate Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland’s 90th year. In 1996, Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI), a registered charity, published a report making recommendations to the UK Government on how to improve safety in stations, claiming the Government’s approach to passenger safety in railway stations was ineffective. To advance the work being done further, the charity is kickstarting the project again – asking the same questions at the UK’s railway stations, to see how much has changed and to obtain a more detailed picture of women’s travelling safety across the country. The charity is also questioning whether the Government’s approach to passenger safety has moved on in the last 29 years. Soroptimist Bristol members were pleased to

  Our Programme Action Officer Bridget co-ordinated a response to Next Link’s appeal, in partnership with St Mungo’s Respite Rooms, for supplies of toiletries to help Domestic and Sexual Violence women survivors living in the Respite Rooms. These are women who have multiple needs and are fleeing high risk harm and homelessness. Over the last two weeks our Club members donated a good number of emergency items which were delivered on Friday 16th May to Next Link by Bridget and Ivete. Thank you to all our members for their generosity.

We were at the charity PhysioNet, near Berkeley, on Saturday doing hard, but gratifying work.   PhysioNet’s warehouse was jam-packed with various mobility equipment which we helped to sort out and get ready. Our Bristol Soroptimists, together with Rotary members, helped to fill a container which is due to be shipped to Fiji. The Fiji High Commissioner, Jovilisi Suveinakama joined us at PhysioNet , as well as the charity’s founder, Peter Thompson MBE. This shipment on 12th April 2025 is the 25th to go to Fiji and the 171st shipment worldwide arranged by the charity. The container will now hopefully be dockside waiting to be loaded for its sea journey to Fiji soon.  

  On 23rd March, MR and SS joined a Walk & Talk along the River Trym and Hazel Brook that was organised by Bristol Avon River Trust (BART).    It was encouraging to learn these waters are monitored and managed and that they now contain eel, trout and stickleback. A few weirs with silt traps were built along the streams to create pools. Without a budget to periodically empty the traps, silt is infilling the ponds. The weirs also hinder trout and eels from going far upstream. The picturesque Stratford Mill was relocated, brick by brick, from Chew Valley Lake to Hazel Brook. The waterwheel is also in place but has never ground anything! On the River Trym old brick inspection covers used to overflow with ‘sanitary waste’ whenever there was moderate or heavy rain. These were replaced by Wessex Water with larger, more effective,

On Monday 10th March, a dedicated team of SI Bristol volunteers travelled to Berkeley, Gloucestershire, to collaborate with PhysioNet. PhysioNet is a UK based charity dedicated to helping some of the most marginalised people in the world by supplying children and adults with disability equipment considered surplus or redundant in the UK. The charity collects discarded items such as crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs from the NHS. These items are then refurbished and shipped in containers to various countries around the world where these vital items are in short supply. Between April and July 2023, for example, PhysioNet sent 5 consignments to Ukraine to supply hospitals in Kyiv and Lviv. The cost of that transport was met by UK Rotary clubs. The SI Bristol team spent a productive and enjoyable morning cleaning and preparing the equipment for shipment. This initiative not only helps reduce waste but

Bridget and Ivete watched live the Opening session of the CSW69 today, marking the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). We heard from the UN’s Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, that “women’s rights are at siege. But there is an antidote, and the antidote is action. Global crisis around the world impeded progress on the agreements in Beijing and that political will is often weak and so is action. The masters of misogyny are gathering strength, so we must step up support for women’s organisations.” Bob Ray, President of ECOSOC, stated that “it’s not enough to reflect on progress, not only talk about solutions, but to deliver solutions. Deliver on the promise of equality, as per Sustainable Development Goal 5. We have an obligation to push back against regression, against the argument that women must know their place. The answer to that

We were delighted to be part of a very stimulating event today, International Women’s Day 2025, at Bristol City Hall. There were many exhibits of interest, good talks, colourful dances and interesting stalls held by many charities, including Next Link – a charity that we support and worked with for a while. Soroptimist Bristol was well represented by Bridget, to whom we owe a big thank you for the organisation of our stall, Gish, Sharon, Sally B, Ivete, Yvonne, Lynda, Lizzie, Lucy, Sue P, Marion, Helen and Laurence. It was an excellent day and an opportunity to meet many known and many new people to talk about our projects and how Soroptimists advocate on women’s issues. We generated a lot of interest in our projects and were able to show a short video illustrating our work to interested parties. Women have continuously shaped history and

      Soroptimist Bristol raised £222.25 on our stall yesterday at Westbury Christmas Fayre in Bristol.   The amount raised will be doubled by Mary’s Meals ‘Double the Love Campaign’ making £444.50, which is sufficient to feed 23 children with a nourishing meal every school day for a whole  year.  In areas of the world where children are malnourished, a meal at school enables them to concentrate on their studies.  Thank you so much for your generosity.