On Friday 24th October we held our monthly Orange cafe (a day early). Once again we enjoyed the company of fellow Soroptimists. This month some members brought their knitting with them as we are busy knitting white hearts for 25th November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. We will be attaching the hearts to white ribbons, the symbol of the day, and handing them out to other people enjoying a coffee at Chequer Mead.
On Tuesday 21st October Gill, Sue and Hilary “woman” a stall at the Looking After You!e vent at Chequer Mead. We were one of many organisations promoting health and welfare. Although we did not attract new members it was a marvellous networking opportunity and was well worth attending.
Sue had a particularly busy day as in the afternoon she appeared on Meridian Radio in a programme called Your Health Matters talking about the Soroptimist Movement.
At our meeting on Wednesday 1st of October we were delighted to welcome Kate Geraghty who is the fundraising administrator of one of our chosen charities, I Choose Freedom, a charity whose aim is to end domestic abuse. Once again it was an extremely informative talk reminding us of why this charity is, sadly, so necessary.
The CEO of I Choose Freedom recently talked about domestic abuse on television as she herself is a domestic abuse survivor. She used the words “don’t lose hope, reach out” which seemed to summarise what I Choose Freedom is about.
Coercive control was criminalised in 2015 and children recognised as survivors in 2021.
In 2024 it was recorded that 1in 4 women and 1 in7 men, since the age of 16, have been subject to some form of domestic abuse. Police take a phone call every 30 seconds which meant in the 45 minute talk that Kate gave us 90 people had made a phone call.
During 2024 I Choose Freedom welcomed 250 adults and children survivors. These were the lucky ones as sadly they have 12 referrals for each room space available.
I Choose Freedom does not just offer a safe haven for people but a program to help women find employment, by preparing them for interviews, writing CVs and with vouchers to help them choose clothes suitable for an interview. They also helped with issues such as finding housing, how to stay out of debt and having found somewhere to live beyond the charity’s housing given links to a settlement program to help with the transition. Children are supported in schools and are given activities such as art therapy to try and help give them their childhood back. Families are supported as a whole to help with things such as health care and behaviour. The charity is also able to arrange trips and celebrations such as a visit from Father Christmas.
We support this charity financially and by providing items for their Christmas present lists, to allow their residents to have a Christmas that will be as joyful as possible.
On Thursday, the 2nd of October, East Grinstead Program Action team met. Many things were discussed and materials were prepared for the following day when two of our members Jane and Gill took to the streets of East Grinstead to spread the news of our anti-spiking campaign. They visited 7 establishments none of which were known for having a particular problem but despite this were willing to display posters and have the glass toppers around for use if needed. We were delighted with the positiveness of the places visited, with nearly all accepting that this was a national problem and possibly one of which nobody was fully aware. We were heartened by the responses that were received and promised to return and provide more glass toppers if necessary.