Saturday February 15th, a windy and stormy day in Llandudno, almost 100 Soroptimists gathered together at the Imperial Hotel for the Cheshire North Wales and Wirral Region Meeting.
It was an interesting and inspirational day which we all enjoyed and are still talking about.
The meeting began with sales tables and raffles and plenty of time to network over coffee. Almost £200 was raised for the Empowering Girls in Nepal Federation Project, a wonderful project that has engaged with all clubs in our Region.
An efficiently run and informative Region council meeting took us nicely up to the lunch break.
In the afternoon we were privileged to be given a presentation on Specialist Domestic Violence Courts by Dame Vera Baird. Members will find her presentation in Region communications Dropbox and is available for all clubs to use. As part of her presentation Dame Vera described how Soroptimists in Northern England became involved in a project to look at how successfully these courts were working in the North East.
Following this inspirational presentation, Claire a survivor of domestic violence bravely told her story. She spoke of the support she received from Bangor and District Women’s Aid and how she is now working to help and empower other women in similar situations.
Another highlight of the day was to have Barbara Dixon our new Honorary Region member with us for the meeting – we were so pleased to see her.
We were pleased that Club representatives and Region Presidents together with Dame Vera Baird and Barbara Dixon gathered together to demonstrate #EqualforEqual.
SIGBI Federation have put a Toolkit together for #EqualForEqual you will find here
The meeting closed in time for us all to battle the elements in a wild and windy Llandudno for our return journey home!