The Pink Tuk Tuk
Our club celebrated its 70th Charter Anniversary in November 2021. The members of the club did a ‘sponsored walk’ of 700 miles to raise £700. This money would be used to train 7 women by the Rosie May Foundation to drive the wonderful Pink TukTuks
We walked collectively over 1000 miles and raised £1400, enabling 14 women to be TukTuk drivers, help lift them out of poverty and support their families. An amazing achievement !
www.rosie-may.com
Starter Bags for Safer Places
Safer Places is an independent charity in Essex and Hertfordshire providing a safe environment for women and children affected by domestic abuse. There is a refuge house in our area and women and their children arrive there, often with nothing. When, eventually, they are found accommodation and leave to start a new life in a new home, they need everything. Each month the club provides a Starter Bag of basic items, such as washing up liquid, kitchen towels, etc. for a woman leaving the refuge.
Promotional Stands
From time to time we have promotional stands in Chelmsford’s city centre and other nearby venues, raising awareness of significant issues affecting women and girls, and what Soroptimists are doing to help.
Currently we support Safer Places (the local Women’s Refuge). In the past we have fundraised and campaigned for a wide variety of projects: the Meru Women’s Garden Project, assisted with a national survey assessing awareness of trafficking in the UK, have raised awareness of Toilet Twinning, which seeks to provide safe and hygienic sanitation in developing countries, and Neat Feet Happy Hands, the project to eliminate “Jiggers”, a flea born infection, in Africa . We have supported the anti-trafficking Purple Teardrop campaign in two ways: by collecting previously loved bras to help set up trafficked women with their own businesses; and collecting signatures for a fabric-based petition, urging fashion manufacturers to ensure their supply chains are slavery-free.
See our Facebook page.
We also have stands at other events:
Supporting local children and women and girls by raising funds to purchase books, and having a stall in the local shopping centre to sell second hand books.
Rosie May Foundation
We are supporting the Rosie May foundation by sponsoring a girl in Sri Lanka. Their aims include reuniting children to strengthen family ties, create meaningful projects for children and to focus on gender equality by empowering girls and young women to break the cycle of poverty.
Best of Sisters Award
to recognise a woman who lives, works or is being educated in the Chelmsford area, who is making a difference to women and/or girls, and deserves recognition.
