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

Cannock Soroptimists together with family and friends – 80 in total – enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at Mitton Manor, Penkridge, for their annual Summer Celebration. President June Bould wanted somewhere quintessentially English where people could walk, chat, enjoy their surroundings and have a delicious afternoon tea; she was delighted when Elizabeth Gooch MBE, owner of Mitton Manor, agreed that the event could be held there. The gardens are within a 7-acre country garden that was started in 2001 and has been developed from an overgrown wilderness. They are now absolutely beautiful and contain a range of different styles, with formal box and topiary, natural woodland bordered by a stream and wonderful flower gardens with a number of water features and sculptures. The day of the Summer Celebration began with rain – the first we have had for weeks – but the day slowly cleared and

Cannock Soroptimists are helping local schools to address the issue of sexting: the sending and receiving of nude pictures and sexually explicit text messages, something which is increasingly becoming normal among teenagers. Often, the youngsters don’t realise they may be acting illegally and that they could face police action. Soroptimists have provided training for pupils and staff of 5 High schools – Cardinal Griffin Catholic College, Staffordshire University Academy, Cannock Chase High School, Kingsmead School and Chase Terrace Technology College – on the risks, both legal and emotional, of sending naked or near naked images. The male and female students, who will be Y12 and Y13 from September, will take on the role of Ambassador within their schools for the project known as ‘Your Body, Your Rules’. Soroptimist Jackie Prince who organised & facilitated the training said “Media reports regarding the increase in young people

Cannock Soroptimists have become aware of a growing problem in this country – families who cannot afford to buy sanitary wear needed each month. A survey found that more than 137,700 girls have missed school in the last year because they couldn’t afford sanitary products. 6 per cent of parents admit they have been so desperate to equip their daughters with sanitary protection they have resorted to stealing on the occasions they couldn’t afford to buy them, whilst more than a fifth of parents said they had gone without something themselves so they had enough money to meet their daughter’s needs. Women’s Aid is aware of the issue as are food banks throughout the country. Many food banks distribute sanitary products and there are some specialist distribution centres already set up. Cannock Soroptimists made an initial collection of products to give to Staffordshire Women’s Aid