Deborah Kingsley, SI Surrey Hills
Siew Yong has been a Soroptimist for 30 years and says she ‘feels blessed to be able to give service’. This was her report, as International President, on the past year’s meetings and presentations. And what a varied and busy year it has been. She certainly has given her service over the past 12 months.
Siew Yong wanted to thank both Past President Cathy Cotteridge and President Ruth Healy for giving her the chance to showcase the work of Soroptimist International at our conferences.
This is our 90th anniversary year and Siew Yong joked that a 90th anniversary is granite, remarking that it certainly sums up Soroptimism. We are definitely a group of strong and resilient women!
As International President, she travels the world visiting all Federations. She paid tribute to the work of SIGBI, which she described as a ‘diverse and vibrant region’. She remarked that she wonders how we manage to coordinate all our many and varied activities across the world with all the different times zones. But we do!
Siew Yong then led us through some of the meetings and events she has attended. Since the conference theme for the afternoon was Enable, as she reflected on her year it underpinned the work that Soroptimists are doing across the world to enable communities to bring meaningful change via collaboration, both globally and locally.
What became most clear through Siew Yong’s presentation was her passion and commitment to climate change. From her first trip to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the UN Environment Assembly, she has recognised the urgent need to address environmental challenges. Throughout the year she has flown the flag on the need to ‘save mother earth, save the future’. She has hosted webinars for World Earth Day, and convened a team of ‘planetary doctors’ who share her passion to help spread the word. She told us about the inspiring stories she had heard along the way, including the story of a young girl from Kenya who started her tree planning mission at age 4. By age 13 she had planed 1.3billion trees! Which, as she said, ‘just goes to show that one individual passion can spark change and protect our planet.”
With trips across Africa, to Seattle, Iceland and Washington amongst many more, Siew Yong has had an incredible year. At a recent trip to Samoa, she listened to a presentation from HRH King Charles III, also a passionate activist for climate change, who remarked on the recent hurricanes in the Caribbean as an example of the effects of our changing environment.
Finally Siew Yong told us about a protocol as part of CSW68 to strive for a joined up approach to stop violence against women and girls (VAWG). 15 member states are already signed up, now she is working to encourage full support of the protocol.
Despite not being able to share her pictures due to some technical glitches, Siew Yong’s warm and passionate presentation gave us a picture of, not just a busy year, but the strength and reach of the work we do across the globe.