A blog by Rachel Weinhold, SI Rossendale Having been a Soroptimist for several years now, I’m often asked ‘what is a Soroptimist?’ and ‘what do Soroptimists do?’. Well, Soroptimists work to ensure that women and girls get a fair deal, in every country around the world. We’ve been doing it for 100 years now and

It is twenty years since the Security Council unanimously adopted UN Resolution 1325. This acknowledged the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women and girls. It also called for increased participation of women at all levels of decision making during the peace process. To quote – “The resolution reaffirms the important role of women in

We’re living through a funny old time aren’t we?! At the time of writing this, the vast majority of the world have been living in lockdown thanks to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Here in the UK, we’re now entering our 12th week of lockdown. Only key workers have been allowed to continue working; the rest

Hello Where did May go?  I have never known a month go by so quickly.  I must admit that it has been a busy 4 weeks.  Lots of ‘Go To Meetings’ with Directors, the Website Working Party, the PR and Marketing Committee, Region/NA/Country Presidents and on Saturday the Director of Membership and I met with

The need for governments, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and people from every nation of the world to work together in partnership has never been greater. Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, referring to the Sustainable Development Goals at the end of 2015, said: “The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are our shared vision of humanity

Hello, Since the World Health Organisation officially declared the Covid19 a pandemic on 11 March, life has changed beyond all recognition.  The news from around the world and the daily toll of cases and deaths reminds us why the measures now in place are so important. The shutdown has caused immeasurable pain in jobs lost,

The UN at 75- and the voices of Women These are disturbing times – in every sort of way – humankind is faced with the uncertainty of what is the new normal, for normal has become variable. In this uncertain time, an institution – the United Nations that was meant to be a harbinger of

Hello So much has happened due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and so much has not happened this month.   We are in social isolation.  The experience of this is different for us all.  Many of us live on our own, many of us are in the ‘at risk’ category and some of us are in the shielded

Commission on the Status of Women 2020 (CSW64) I am sure you are all aware that CSW64 was cancelled due to the threat of Corona Virus and the dangers of having 11,000 community delegates in New York together with government delegations and UN staff. We were all very disappointed and somewhat disbelieving but subsequent developments