Welcome to SI Dunfermline
Dunfermline is in the Kingdom of Fife and is the Ancient Capital Town of Scotland. Home to many important and historic sites, including the burial place of King Robert the Bruce and the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie. We are delighted that Dunfermline was granted city status recently recognising the part it played in the history of Scotland.
Who are we?
We are a friendly group of like-minded women who bring a wealth of knowledge and life experience to our club. Committed to improving the lives of women and girls across the world through our volunteering and project work. Soroptimists educate, empower and enable women and girls to achieve their potential. The club currently has around 30 members. Enquiries are always welcome from any woman interested in what we do
Where and When we Meet
We resume on the 8th September after the summer break at the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline starting at 7pm. Meetings will be held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month until November. During January and February we will be holding our meetings using Zoom and will resume face to face meeting in March. We have a varied and interesting programme of speakers and activities. Details are on the meetings schedule page of the website. http://www.carnegieconferencecente.co.uk
Celebrating 70 years
Soroptimists in Dunfermline celebrated 70 years of service in 2020. Our club was chartered in 1950. It is a daughter club of SI Edinburgh and mother club to SI Kirkcaldy. Celebrations were planned for 2020 but had to be postponed. However our work continued and we are looking forward to the future.
The collage shows some of our members.
What we are doing this year
This year our theme is education and we will be looking for ways to educate ourselves and others on the issues important to women and girls. .We will continue to support Women’s Aid and Segal House. Our support for the local foodbank in Dunfermline will also continue.
Start up kits for Segal House to help homeless people when they are able to move into their new homes.
Blankets have been donated to Segal House and to Women’s Aid. The sewing bee will be looking for new projects this year to make use of the talents of our members.
Collections.
We currently collect a variety of items for various causes.
We are collecting used spectacles for recycling by the Lions Clubs who sort them and send them out to developing countries.
New and gently used bras and new pants are collected for Smalls for All. Some of our members volunteer there opening parcels and the bras and pants are sent to countries in Africa and also to charities in the UK. http://www.smallsforall.org
Blister packs are also collected to be taken to Superdrug where they are sent on to Terracycle for recycling. http://www,terracycle.co.uk
We also support Survivors of Human trafficking in Scotland SOHTIS with donations of toiletries and make up for the victims of human trafficking.http://www,sohtis.org
Books are collected for Better World Books.http://www.betterworldbooks.com
Campaigning
Using our Facebook page we will be taking part in the 16 days of activism campaign. This is raising awareness of the Orange the World Campaign which highlights violence against women.
Plastic Free Dunfermline
Plastic Free Dunfermline – We have signed the Pledge. http://www.plasticfreedunfermline.org.uk
Summer Fun
Over the summer break we have continued to meet informally and have regular coffee mornings at various places. We also had a barbecue at the home of one of our members and a group enjoyed a trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Stitches for Survival
Two members of the club made panels as part of the Stitches for Survival Project for COP26. Panels could be knitted, crocheted or stitched and had to be 100cms by 60 cms. These panels were sewn together and hung at Glasgow Green on the 6th of November during the COP 26 event. The aim was to make a scarf measuring 1,5 miles to represent 1.5 degrees to highlight the target temperature change. 1500 panels were made across the UK and we were delighted to be part of this craftivism raising awareness of climate change.
Celebrating the centenary of Soroptimist International.
To celebrate 100 years of Soroptimist International a set of playing cards have been produced. These feature Soroptimists from across Scotland. The club are really pleased that 6 members of our club are featured in the pack. You can order a set by visiting the website for Scotland South http://www.sigbi.org/scotland-south
Lighting Candles to celebrate 100 years of service.
On the 23rd of September 2021 members joined together to light candles to celebrate the centenary of our organisation. Four candles were lit to represent the club, Scotland South Region, Our Federation SIGBI and Soroptimist International.
Part of the Scotland South Region
The club is one of 8 clubs within Scotland South Region of our Federation. We are delighted that past club president Tina Chapman has just completed a two year term of office as our Region President.
