At the first speaker meeting of 2019 members were deliciously entertained by Jackie Smith. 12 years ago Jackie turned her back on education to start her own business: www.novachocolates.co.uk giving her the best job in the world, a real life Willy Wonka. Whilst researching the history of chocolate she found that it has health benefits! It is rich in nitric oxide and has anti inflammatory properties with the good news being that eating a small amount each day will not pile on the pounds! The Cacao bean was discovered in the Amazon in the time of the Mayan people. The beans were used as currency and they had a higher value than gold. Once the pods are harvested, the beans which at this stage are pink, are left to dry for 2 – 8 days which turns them brown, then they are sent for processing;

Cannock Soroptimists were delighted to support people locally and abroad over the Christmas period. Members made donations amounting to £135.25 to international project “Women, Water and Leadership” in lieu of sending cards to each other; they donated Christmas gifts for the women and children who were living in the refuge run by The Pathway Project for women victims of domestic abuse and funded and prepared a 3 course Christmas meal for almost 60 people who regularly use the Soup Kitchen in Mill Street, Cannock. Cannock Soroptimists are continuing their work with local schools involved with two of their projects “Your Body, Your Rules” and the Loves Me/Moves Me Not bookmarks. The speaker at their Annual Dinner to be held on February 8th at Brocton Hall Golf Club is paralympic snowboard champion Anna Turney. They will be marking International Women’s Day this year by holding a

SI C&D International Women’s day 2019 (1) SI Cannock & District  invite you to an evening to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday 5th March 2019 at The Barns Restaurant, Huntington, Cannock 6.30pm for 7.00pm Speaker: Historian and Author Dr Janis Lomas “Rabble rousers and genteel ladies: the petticoat pioneers who won the vote” Tickets: £14.00 To include a 2 course meal and coffee/tea with mints Meal choice Chicken breast served with spinach and red pepper served with a champagne sauce Salmon fillet with an Italian tomato and herb sauce Vegetable and leek medley en croute o0o White chocolate and raspberry bread and butter pudding Fresh fruit salad Fruits of the forest cheesecake Chocolate fudge cake Payment of £14.00 by bacs: Sort code 52-21-00 Account Number 94990328 (Ref: Your Surname & IWD19) Please send to Mrs Eileen Cryer, 112, Newhall Street Cannock, Staffs WS11 1AD

President, June Bould, was delighted to welcome Zoe Pyatt, Housing Manager at Stafford and Cannock League of Hospital Friends to Cannock Soroptimist’s last speaker evening. Zoe captured the ladies’ attention by outlining the amazing work undertaken by the unique Charity. Far from the League of Friends indispensable coffee shops which effuse hospitality and for which the organisation is known, Zoe explained the Charity’s growth and expansion into providing supportive housing for individuals who are battling mental illness. The Charity, which was run solely by dedicated volunteers until 1996, now owns several properties in the Stafford area, recently purchasing their first in Cannock. Stafford and Cannock League of Hospital Friends work tirelessly to offer furnished, modern housing to those in need. They help to support vulnerable members of society by providing a tailored support service to aid recovery and beat addiction. Currently the League house forty

Christmas – a time for giving And that is exactly what Cannock Soroptomists will be doing again this year. There are many things the Club members do throughout the year to help women and children locally and globally, but Christmas is a time of year when it is especially good to remember and help those in need. Members have donated gifts which will be wrapped and given to the women and children who will spend Christmas living in the refuge for women victims of domestic abuse. The gifts provided this year included clothing, toys, books, toiletry sets: the things we all love to receive on Christmas Day, though for these women and their children the gifts will mean rather more as they will all be without any other family members at that time. It has become tradition for Club members to provide and cook a

CANNOCK & DISTRICT AWARD WINNERS!! On Saturday 27th October, at the Soroptimist International Federation of Great Britain & Ireland annual conference, Cannock & District were given the Best Practice award for Education for their Your Body, Your Rules, anti sexting project! With 8,000 Members in 352 Clubs in 29 countries including Great Britain, Ireland and countries in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Malta Soroptimist International of Great Britain & Ireland (SIGBI), works at a local, national and international level to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women and girls. The six key areas of work are Advocacy, Economic Empowerment, Education, Environmental Sustainability, Food Security and Health Care and Violence and Conflict Resolution. SIGBI has consultative status at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations (UN). The Your Body, Your Rules anti-sexting project has been launched in Five local schools: Cannock Chase High,

Cannock and Stafford Soroptimists and their guests were delighted on 9th October to welcome Patricia Gatherum to celebrate their International Evening. Patricia had travelled from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to be with them. She is the coordinator for the project that Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) have been supporting for the last three years in the Meru district of Kenya and had recently returned from a study tour, so was able to tell everyone at firsthand how the project was progressing. Working with the charity child.org and a local charity called CIFORD the project set out to provide seeds, tools and encouragement to enable women in that impoverished rural area of Kenya  to create gardens to support themselves and their families and to provide surplus food to sell in their local market. Forty highly motivated women were chosen to undertake the gardening. They were also

Cannock Soroptimists held a successful day in Cannock Town Centre recently when many members of the public paid them a visit to donate items of sanitary wear and also toiletries. They had responded to articles in the press and to posters in both Cannock and Hednesford. Amongst those to donate was Tesco store in Hednesford – they had displayed a poster and were very keen to help those women and girls who are unable to afford sanitary wear on a month by month basis. Research has shown there are a large number of families who struggle financially with mothers often having to make choices which are unreasonable – whether to buy food or whether to buy sanitary wear for themselves or their daughters. The items donated will be distributed via Pathway and Staffordshire Women’s Aid to women in Cannock who are in need of this

President of SI Cannock June Bould welcomed members and guests, including region President Jan Gray, to their September speaker meeting and introduced speaker Detective Sergeant Sharon Smith of the West Midlands Police.   Sharon is Safeguarding Lead and specialises in the area of Domestic Abuse, in particular Forced Marriage and Honour Abuse and these last two subjects were the topic of her presentation. She ensured that everyone understood the difference between a forced marriage and an arranged marriage: those involved in an arranged marriage have the opportunity to choose not to marry the chosen partner, those involved in a forced marriage have no choice and are often threatened that awful things will happen if the marriage does not occur; violence can often be a part of this.  Forced marriage is a criminal offence and has been so since 2014. She based her presentation on two stories