Welcome to our Club
We are a group of women from different walks of life with a variety of interests who enjoy working together through fun, friendship and fellowship to make a difference to women and children locally, nationally and internationally. There’s more about us in Who we are
Locally we support St David’s Hospice Care, Cyfannol Women’s Aid, Tools for Self Reliance, Monmouthshire Newport Torfaen MS Group, collect and sell pre-loved jewellery for Alzheimer’s Society, make drain bags and comfort cushions for ladies who have had mastectomies. Knit Comfort Teddies which are kept by Social Services, Schools, in Police/Fire vehicles/ambulances and given out to small children involved in traumatic or upsetting circumstances. Give copies of ‘Women in Science’ to local primary schools. Liaise with the chaplain at the Grange University Hospital for any items needed for babies/children. Internationally we support Plan (a global children’s Charity), Water Aid, and much more to be found in What we doWhat we do
Our Charities for this year, chosen and voted on, are St David’s Hospice Care, Sight Cymru, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital and Cyfannol Wales.
We can also be found on Facebook under Soroptimist International Cwmbran.
Our meetings , usually a brief business meeting followed by a speaker, ending with light refreshments and a time to socialise are held on the second Monday of the month (with the exception of August and December) at Greenmeadow Golf and Country Club (just off the A4042 on Treherbert Road, Croesyceiliog). We usually have a monthly coffee morning and have other social and fundraising events throughout the year..
What we’ve been doing in 2026
We started 2026 by inducting and welcoming a new member, Alison George. This was followed by a very interesting talk by Kath Fisher about Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, which is also one of our Charities for this year.
January is also the time of the year when we review what we’ve been doing with our Programme Action work and so far we’ve donated
(a) 160 Comfort teddies -to SARC, Torfaen Santa Appeal, Cyfannol, The Hub, Neville Hall Special Dentist unit and St. David’s Hospice.
(b) Twiddle Muffs and Knee Blankets – to Age Connect Widdishins, St. Mellon’s Care Home and Hope GB
(c) Grange Hospital – 796 Nappies, Incontinence pants, Baby Bonding squares, bonnets, hats, bendy straws and grief hearts.
(d) Cyfannol Women’s Aid –Toiletries, sanitary products and children’sclothing.
(e) Hub – Clothing and Comfort teddies donated to the hub. Members brought food items to the September meeting to be donated to Croesyceiliog Hub.
(f) Comfort Cushions – 20 +cushions Donated to Tenovus Mobile Support Units and 20 cushions donated to Maggie’s Centre made for ladies recovering from breast surgery.
We donated money to the following:
(a)Water Aid – £116.93
(b)Plan – to support a girl in the Philippines.
(c)Character teddies – £370 for club charities from the sale of knitted character teddies at The Retreat, Llanover.
(d) Pre-loved Jewellery – Pat has raised £1045 this year from the sale of pre-loved jewellery at school and church fetes and the gold kiosk in Cwmbran which will be used to support local charities.
(e)SI Foundation – for projects which focus on education, poverty prevention and human rights – £142.00 in lieu of Christmas cards.
(f) Microlending The project supported the development of 59 entrepreneurs and created 14 jobs with £360 lent. Repaid money to be reinvested in other entrepreneurs identified by the club.
(g) Sales Tables at club meetings– Plant Swop stall £15, £25 Clothes stall. Any remaining items were donated locally.
(h) Cyfannol – £41 from donations at 16 Days of Activism event at Halo, Pontypool.
(i) Maggie’s Centre – £40 from raffle at October meeting.
(j) Donations to SI Cwmbran – talk £30 from Griffithstown Baptist Craft and Well-being group, £20 from a friend, £15 for donated jumpers and £15 from donations for Comfort Cushions.
Our recycling included.
(a) Tools for Self -Reliance in Crickhowell to be sent out to Tanzania – Sewing machines, power tools, garden equipment, sewing equipment, wools, needles and tools. We have a number of tools ready to be donated.
(b) Bras – A number of bags of old bras have been taken to Harts of Monmouth and the Principality Building Society in Cwmbran to be recycled.
What we did in 2025
December
We finished 2025 with a very enjoyable Christmas lunch at the Little Crown in Wainfelin
November
From November 25 to December 10 we’re participating in 16 days of activism to end online violence against all women and girls. We’re raising awareness of this in our area by displaying orange wreaths at Greenmeadow Golf Club, Cwmbran Library and Congress Theatre, Croesyceiliog Hub and Pontypool Leisure Centr St. David’s Charity Shop, Old Cwmbran, Llanyravon Church and Tasty Wasty Food Hub and Llantarnam Grange. We’ll be having a coffee morning at Pontypool Leisure Centre where we’ll also be having a stand displaying more about 16 days of activism.
To start this time at our November meeting our speakers Amy Jones and Kelly Squires from Cyfannol. Amy explained how the Drop-In service support women in Newport who may be suffering from sexual exploitation and Kelly told us about their Children and Young People support service.
October
This month is Breast Awareness month and to show our support we invited to our monthly meeting on 13 October , Samantha Holiday from Maggie’s cafe Velindre with the theme of the meeting to wear or bring something pink. We had a raffle and donated the collection to Maggie’s cafe.
We had a fun Murder Mystery fundraising evening by a group of actors from Abergavenny called ‘Dai Laughing’.
On the 27th we visited the Grange University hospital where we were welcomed by the chaplains Jen and Andy and we put together ladies, men’s and children’s toiletry bags. Some to go to patients on the wards and some to the houses on site where parents of the children in hospital can stay.
Marian has also been busy visiting the Tenovus charity shop in Penarth to donate another 20 comfort cushions made by SI Cwmbran members and friends whilst Sallie gave 30 comfort teddies to New Pathways to support clients.
September
After our break in August our speaker was Sammy from Age Connect in Pontypool. Sammy explained the services they offered with particular regard to people with dementia. Sammy thanked us for all the donations we had given over the years from our sales of pre-loved jewellery and the latest we donated went to a music and movement class for people with dementia.
To raise Club funds we had stalls selling jewellery, scarves, coats and apple as well as a stall for donation of tins to the Croesy Food Hub.
At the end of September we had the great news that our Grange Hospital Partnership Project came second in the regional Programme Action awards.
August
Although we don’t have a business meeting in August we are still busy. We held a very successful coffee morning hosted by Jen. As well as delicious cakes, coffee and tea, we had a sales table and raffle which raised £529.
Pamela was busy delivering comfort teddies and twiddle muffs to Hope GB, an autism charity supporting individuals and families.
whilst Marian has been busy delivering comfort cushions to Maggie’s cafe, Velindre.
July
The speaker at our meeting was Dr Bablin Malik, the CEO of Sight Cymru. The Charity, which is based in Pontypool, supports the welfare of people who are severely sight-impaired and impaired.
Rosemary met with Jennie Edwards, who has replaced Carole at the Grange as our contact and gave her:
40 large incontinent pants
2 teddies and comfort squares
1 premature baby dress and hat
3 bonnets
70 sleeves for cannula tubes
For our social activities we had a very enjoyable boat ride on the canal with a delicious afternoon tea, organised by Jen and Mary.
On the 28th July we had a coffee morning by the beautiful Llandegfedd Reservoir.
June
The start of June saw us continuing with donations as Carol, the chaplain at Llanfrechfa Grange collected the following from Rosemary:
604 nappies of various sizes
22 knitted hats for premature babies
8 knitted little teddies in blankets
2 knitted teddies without blankets
100 bendy straws
Various toiletries
pyjamas
May
Our meeting was followed by 30 minutes of chair yoga led by Kate. This was both informative and relaxing for members. It was also appropriate as it is ‘World Health Month’.
This has also been a month of donations as Marian visited the Tenovus charity shop in Penarth to donate 20 Comfort Cushions which had been made by SI Cwmbran members and friends. The cushions can be used for clients using the Tenovus Mobile Screening Units. At our coffee morning at Age Connect we presented a cheque from the proceeds of the selling of pre-loved jewellery as well as donating 6 twiddle muffs.
April
Was the month of our AGM which saw our outgoing Presidents, Paddy and Sallie receiving a big thank you for all the work they have done over their years in office and welcoming in President Ann.
March
The 2nd March was our 45th anniversary and we celebrated by having our annual lunch at Greenmeadow with 76 members and guests. This was also a happy opportunity to present long service awards to
Edith Price, a founder member of our club, 45 years , Joyce Jarrett, also 45 years , Kay Touhig 40 years , Ann Hodgson 30 years and Marian John 30 years . Sadly Marie another long serving member couldn’t be with us today.
8th March saw us at the annual International Women’s’ Day event at the Riverfront theatre in Newport.
February
The end of February saw an early celebration of St David’s Day, 1 March, at Llantarnam Grange for a coffee morning. We were pleased to welcome Helen, again, who knits the lovely Welsh dolls and some of our character teddies.
January
We started the year by having our annual Programme Action evening showing what Projects we’ve been involved in over the last year, as highlighted above.
This was followed by an interesting talk from Judith Major from Tenovus.
We also welcomed 3 new members to our Club which brings our membership up to 30.
Join us
We are always pleased to have new members and if you want to know more, join us for a coffee morning or just have an informal chat over a cup of tea or coffee please click on the Contact us link.