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 kepth 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
July
The start of this month saw us at Goytre at a car boot sale where we raised £200.
Our speaker in July was Mr Rod Collier from St John’s Ambulance who gave us information and practice on resuscitation and defibrillators.
The Walled Garden at Llanfrechfa Grange was the venue for our coffee morning. We were first shown round the garden and stopped by the cherry tree which we donated to celebrate 100 years of Soroptimist.
June
At our June meeting member Lyne talked to us about Croesy Food hub which she organises. This was started during Covid when some people needed help and it has developed from there. Members donate food items every month and members Sheelagh and Gill take turns to help out.
We also had a plant sale raising money for club charities and to highlight World Environment Day.
Some members had also made fabric patches for the Community Collaborative quilt designed by Emma Bevan.
Our coffee morning was held at Llandegfedd Reservoir.
We had a successful day at Cwmbran’s Big Event making £112.43 from the sale of jewellery and £68.20 from the sale of teddies, make up bags and cardigans.
May
For National Women’s Health Week (May 10-14) and Mental Health Awareness Week we invited Claire John who owns Float-Haus Wales in Mathilda as our speaker. Floatation therapy gives you the feeling of complete weightlessness while you float in a pod of supersaturated thermoneutral salt water for an hour. This hour of no light, distractions or pressures allows the body to release long held tension. On 22 May we held our coffee morning at St David’s Hospice , who we have supported for many years and where as ever we were made very welcome.
April
April started by having our AGM when we looked backwards to see what we had been doing in the last year and forward to our plans for 2026/ 27.
Following on from a visit to an interesting Exhibition organised by Emma Bevan-Henderson in Abergavenny of a community shawl with over 100 patches made by women in Wales to express thoughts and research of domestic abuse we had a coffee morning at Marian’s to make patches for Emma’s latest project a collaborative quilt collecting and acknowledging women’s stories, memories and lived experiences.
Our April coffee morning was held at Greenmeadow Golf C.ub which Terry linked with the Ladies Golf Day to allow club to put and a stand and jewellery stall at the event. Members present donated£18 to Ty Hafan for the delicious home-made cakes.
March
March started by our having a stand at International Women’s Day at the Riverfront Theatre,
At our club meeting Louise Jones Williams from Llantarnam Grange gave us an interesting talk about textiles used in the Suffragette movement including photos of the different banners used. The Grange will be celebrating its 60th anniversary this year including an Exhibition on 14th March.
For coffee morning we had an enjoyable time at the Goytre Arms which is now a coffee shop with a menu featuring locally produced food as well as a gift shop showcasing local businesses and artisans .
The month ended with Rosemary taking five bags of donations up to Llanfrechfa Grange hospital including ladies’ and men’s’ toiletry bags, incontinent pads, disposable nappies, men’s: pyjamas and small knitted hearts to go in memory boxes.
February
At our February meeting Susan Morgan a Torfaen County Borough Councillor came to talk to us about the reasons that led her into politics and gave us an insight as to what is involved in being a Councillor. The end of February saw us having an early St David’s Day breakfast at Kitoko on the Mathilda Park Estats.
Members have been busy with Rosemary taking teeny teddy bears , knitted by Helen, to go into memory boxes for stillborn or babies who didn’t live long to the Grange as well as teddies for older babies. Nerys took twiddle muffs to dementia patients at Chepstow hospital and Pamela took twiddle muffs to Hope, sewing machines were collected from Terry by Tools for Self Reliance and Rhoda collected toiletries for the Grange donated by members of Little Mill WI.
January
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.