What does Soroptimist East London do?
What does Soroptimist East London do? Before we get to “what”, let’s start with the why.
Let’s start with the why!
We do what we do because …..
We’re aspirational about what women can achieve and passionate about gender equality. So, empowering women is at the centre of what we do.
We believe in sisterhood, smart women helping other women, lifelong learning and fun.
We know that when women come together to empower each other and other women, they can make a real difference, achieve positive change and help sustainable development right here in east London and around the world.
What does Soroptimist East London do?
We empower women to achieve positive change and sustainable development right here in the east end of London and around the world.
With women’s empowerment at the centre, our activities expand outward in five themes: people, planet, prosperity and peace. Soroptimist International has consultative status at the United Nations, meaning that what we do, whether right here in East London or further afield, can have an impact at the very height of international affairs. So we link our activities to the United Nations development goals (read more about it in our blog What does Soroptimist East London do? ).
The five themes are the basis for our activities and projects which can change year to year on the basis of member’s interests (we decide every year).
For example, in addition to the fabulous talks which we organise on a regular basis:
We’re empowering women writers through supporting a literary prize for unpublished BAME women writers in the UK and, big fans of making women visible, we’ve been researching women’s history and have contributed to the work of the East End Women’s Museum and other women’s history projects too! If you’re interested in women’s history you can read more about ours and the amazing women who have been members of Soroptimist East London on our history page.
On prosperity, we mentor budding businesswomen, in partnership with HERA and with East London’s Luminary Bakery. to have fun with purpose we’ve run workshops with female-focused social enterprises like Juta Shoes which provides employment for women in East London.
On people, we’re working to support women from marginalised communities in Kosovo with The Ideas Partnership, and have been supporting ChoraChori in Nepal through. Nearer to home, we support a local refuge for trafficked women as well as local organisation Beyond the Streets which helps women out of street prostitution; in the past, we’ve assisted initiatives to combat human trafficking and modern slavery.
Our “planet projects” include awareness-raising and fundraising to ensure women all around the world have access to safe, clean, and decent sanitation with Toilet Twinning.
On peace …….. watch this space!
How do we do it?
We do it through advocacy, education and a lot of voluntary work! We’re volunteers!
We do it by partnering with Soroptimist clubs and other organisations in east London and around the world – sisterhood across borders!
We do it by meeting monthly, having fabulous speakers, social get-togethers and a lot of fun. Check out our calendar of events here!
We do it by being female friends you can count on (ps, we’ve heard that’s good for women’s health and well-being and for networking too!)
You can read more about it in our blog What does Soroptimist East London do? and have a look at our past activities (pre-2020) too!
Remind me, why do you do it?
We do it because we have a vision of a world in which women and girls will achieve their individual and collective potential, realise aspirations and have an equal voice in creating strong, peaceful communities worldwide.
Interested to join or find out more?
New members are always welcome to join our friendly club, so, if you’re interested to join, or just find out more please get in touch.
And, to stay up to date with our latest news and events, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook!