The Bluebell Centre is the new birthing unit at Warwick Hospital – we gave a donation of £225 from the money raised by providing teas and coffees at the flu clinics at Bertie Road Medical Centre last year.   One of our members represented club at the opening of the new unit on Thursday 28th June. She was very impressed by the whole unit which is separate to the main maternity wards in the hospital. It was very spacious and beautifully decorated and had a lovely calm atmosphere. The 4 individual rooms were very large in comparison with the usual size of hospital rooms each containing birthing pools and other equipment to assist in the birth. In fact the unit didn’t feel like we were in the hospital at all. In addition there is a large communal room which has catering facilities and small private

Rhiannon Evans gave us an amazing talks about how she found her mother’s war journals and turned them into a book.  Her mother Joyce Ffoulkes Parry was a Queen Alexandria nurse during WW2 and travelled via ship to Africa, the Middle East and India to tend the wounded.   The journals not only told of Joyce’s work but also what everyday life was like for nurses during the war.   Photos illustrated her life including the heavy formal uniforms they were required to wear, even in the tropics! It was a very hot evening and it was easy to imagine what life would have been like on the troop ship although thankfully we were only listening for an evening, not weeks in those conditions.   Despite the heat, Rhiannon held our attention as she re-created the journey of her mother’s war from these forgotten diaries.

We’re thrilled to hear that Charity, a nurse we’ve sponsored in Malawi has now graduated. To read more about this project, please look in our Programme Action section

A busy weekend for nine Club members as we got up early on Sunday morning to help marshal the well renowned Two Castles 10k race.   Some of us have run it and we know how much the 6,000 participants appreciate how our marshalling keeps them safe from traffic, and our cheers of encouragement as they go past. This way please!   We’ll happily show you which way you can go whilst the race is on

We teamed up with Kenilworth Lions to help us with Joan’s garden.   She loves her little patch and was very sad when her wooden table collapsed.   Thankfully Lions came to our rescue and kindly donated a very smart outdoor table for her to use when potting up her plants,   A great example of two local organisations working together to support their local community. As it was Joan’s birthday the next day, we also took her a cake!    

Eight members of SI Kenilworth joined fellow Soroptimists from Midland Arden Region as delegates of the 52nd SIGBI Conference in Killarney C0.Kerry on the weekend of the 19 May 2018. A warm Irish welcome was received. The Conference theme was empathy and  the Guest speakers at the Conference including a representative from the travelling community in Ireland, a CEO of a large International Pharmaceutical Company and a MEP. All speakers emphasised the importance of mutual respect and understanding and the opportunities available to us all to make a difference. The importance that Soroptimists make to the lives of Women and Girls around the world was recognised by all speakers.All delegates agreed that the Conference gave a unique insight into the work of Soroptimists on both sides of the Border in the Island of Ireland Seven of us also took the opportunity to enjoy some of