On International Women’s Day Soroptimists all over the world continue to do all that they can to improve the lives of women – whether that be to provide them with education, with clean water, with skills to provide food for their family, to look after their health needs or to help them out of or avoid forced marriage, exploitation, trafficking or the ravages of FGM. Before that work can be done however, Soroptimists need to raise their own awareness and that is what Soroptimists within Midland Chase Region did on Saturday 7th March.
The morning session was entitled Modern Day Slavery and Detective Constable Michelle Lane of the Sex Offences Team spoke about the things they face each and every day, of some of the difficulties of prosecuting the perpetrators and of the successes when women are taken from the life of slavery, drug abuse and prostitution they may have been subjected to. She was very clear that the message needs to be spread, more people need to be aware of the signs of trafficked victims, of those who may be being prostituted and those who may be carrying out forced labour. These people are slaves: another person has complete power over them. West Midlands Police work closely with Hope for Justice, a charitable organisation which provides safe houses and which is now providing training within large companies in the UK to enable them to recognise the signs of those in forced labour. More information is available on the website: www.hopeforjustice.org
SI Cannock gave an overview of the work they have done over the last 4 years around trafficking and child sexual exploitation. One area of their work was to talk to taxi drivers about the signs of trafficking and to supply hem with literature which could be given out as appropriate. In some areas of Staffordshire it is now a pre-requisite of having a licence for taxi drivers to have awareness training and to carry information in the taxis. Staffordshire Police are hopeful that this practice can be rolled out throughout the County.
The afternoon session, ‘Women and Heart Disease’, was led by Dr Jane Flint Bridgewater, Consultant Cardiologist. It is accepted that women are very poor at recognizing ‘at risk’ symptoms and at presenting themselves to a GP. Dr Flint Bridgewater, herself a Soroptimist, wanted everyone to take away the message that women need to do what they can to guard against cardiovascular disease as 1 in 3 women [the same ratio as for men] will die of this and three times as many women will die from heart disease than from breast cancer. She recommended the Women’s Room on the British Heart Foundation website: www.bhf.org.uk as an excellent source of information. They are running a campaign for International Women’s Day called Women with Heart, celebrating the women that have shown true bravery in the fight against heart and circulatory disease
All 13 clubs in the Region will be continuing their work to educate, enable and empower women to live healthier lives free from oppression and fear.
Photo: Members of SI Cannock & District celebrate International Women’s Day