The stories behind the artwork for this project    Birmingham New Street is to host a unique art installation which celebrates 100 years since women first got the right to vote. The ‘Face of Suffrage’ artwork will be a floor-based, 200 metre-square photo mosaic consisting of more than 3,500 images of females from across the West Midlands and beyond. It will be made up of a combination of historical images of women involved in the suffragette movement from the West Midlands in the early 1900s and of pictures of females from today. When viewed from above, the mosaic will show a leading face – still to be decided – from the suffrage movement in the West Midlands. This is a photo of some of the members of Soroptimist International of Kenilworth & District on Thursday 11 October 2018 following a lively discussion about our current

At our business meeting this month, Gill B gave a short talk about the work of MIND with young people.  A special MIND advisor is working with schools in Warwickshire to support youngsters with mental health issues. We will be hearing from her in the new year.   Gill stressed the importance of coordinated mental health help in order to provide continuity.

indonesian coffee morning 7.10.18 Club members responded magnificently to the call from Tricia to support a coffee morning at Trish’s to raise some urgent funds to help the survivors of the earthquake and tsunami in the Phillipines. With only a few days notice, over £130 was raised. World Vision manager Radika Pinto, reporting from affected area, says the earthquake and tsunami destroyed villages and blocked access, causing a “catastrophic situation.” Radika says while local efforts are still primarily focused on search and rescue, “I’m afraid the death toll is going to continue to rise dramatically. The smell of death is still strong in the air

President Anita, Georgie, Tricia and Elaine received a very warm welcome from our Dutch Friendship Link club, SI Arnhem Oost, and our joint German Friendship Link club, SI Remscheid. The theme of the conference was ‘Empowerment’ and they attended interesting workshops, including one on mentoring. A big ‘thank you’ to SI Arnhem Oost for the invitation to the conference and for looking after Club members so well. Over 500 Soroptimists from 15 countries joined the weekend festivities and a full programme of events commenced with a welcome drinks party in the former Royal Palace.  This was followed the next day by a conference with interesting speakers (in English!), afternoon workshops, a fashion show featuring local designers, a cabaret and finished with a walking tour of Leeuwarden.  A canal trip on Sunday gave us the opportunity to experience Leeuwarden from the water.  Leeuwarden is this year’s

On United Nations International day of Peace, 21st September, Club members joined with children from St Augustine’s Primary School and lit a candle for peace around the world. Here you can see us with some of the prayers for peace that the children wrote on white paper doves.

“On Saturday 8 September, SI Kenilworth & District Soroptimists in conjunction with Kenilworth Books had a stall in Talisman Square where free books were given to children and families.  The children and passers by were surprised that the books were gratis, and some wanted to give a donation! The project was designed to encourage reading and literacy.  The children were particularly pleased to receive the books. Kenilworth Books were extremely helpful to us by  erecting a table and gazebo for the stall, as well as donating books.”

We were delighted to hear the following news from Refuge – an organisation we support:- The government has decided to continue to provide housing benefit for supported housing including refuges. You might find the links below interesting. This is a huge relief to us all and will do a lot to help us keep refuges open https://www.refuge.org.uk/refuge-welcomes-mhclg-announcement-on-supported-housing-funding/   Refuge welcomes MHCLG announcement on supported housing funding – Refuge Charity – Domestic Violence Help www.refuge.org.uk Refuge is delighted that the Government has announced plans to keep housing benefit in place for all those living in supported housing – something that Refuge has long championed for. Sandra Horley, CBE, Chief Executive of Refuge says: “Today’s announcement follows much lobbying by Refuge to protect funding for women’s refuges; emergency accommodation which provides a lifeline to women escaping domestic violence, a crime which claims the lives of around two

We were delighted to join in with a toast  to Georgie, who had chose to have  her special birthday meal with us at our July dinner meeting. This was so typical of Georgie and demonstrates her dedication and commitment to Soroptimism and our club. She is involved in all aspects of our club and gives her all. She also started the Public Speaking contest and has organised it for 16 years,  without much support at times. We are privileged to have her as a member of our club, and for each and every one of us to count her as a friend. Elaine organised a beautiful cake for Georgie to cut and make a wish whilst Marion made one of her fabulous cards for us to sign, and also produced cards for the table.

Our guest speaker, Sue Nightingale, became a volunteer for the charity Mary’s Meals following a two week work experience using her skills as a nurse in Kenya.   There she saw the impact that the simple provision of one meal a day made to impoverished school children. We are used to the idea of ‘Breakfast Clubs’ in the UK providing our children with a good nourishing start to the day but it was quite shocking to hear that these children are so grateful for ONE meal a day.   Mary’s Meals sets up feeding programmes in some of the world’s poorest communities, regardless of faith.   By providing a daily meal in a place of learning Mary’s Meals enable chronically hungry children to gain an education that could be their path to a brighter future.   It costs just £13.90 to feed a child for a