Our club is supporting the Fawcett Society #OurTimeNow by tweeting a picture of a clock face on our twitter account on 6th February. The campaign aims to break down barriers to gender equality. To find out more about this gesture of support which is indeed supported by, among others, Helen Pankhurst the great grand daughter of Emmeline, see the website: https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/ourtimenow  

On the 25th January, club members and some soropmisters celebrated Burn’s Night. We had music (bagpipes of course) while the haggis was paraded around the diners before being addressed with great humour by the club secretary. After the traditional meal, there was more entertainment: poetry by Burns, some Scottish tales, and a Toast to the Lassies, when we discovered what a lad Robert Burns had been as far as his women were concerned. In the response to the Toast, we concluded that for all their faults, we would rather not do without the laddies. Two versions of Auld Lang Syne were recited: one in the vernacular, and the English translation, after which everyone sang it with great enthusiasm. A very enjoyable time was had by all, and the organisers are to be congratulated on a great evening.  

We took great delight in welcoming Vonn to our Club, introduced by the inimitable Georgie at our January business meeting!

Thanks to the generosity of the general public who gave us donations for tea and coffee at last year’s Castle Medical Centre flu clinics, we were able to donate £225 towards the new Midwife Led Birthing Unit at Warwick Hospital. Anna Jackson came to tell us how the work is progressing, sounds like it will be an amazing facility. Many of us felt almost a sense of regret that our baby days are passed – but very impressed at what will be on offer soon.  

Our President organised a Foodbank collection from members in December and says “Thank you Club for all your donations for the Kenilworth Foodbank , loads of treats as well as basics. Much better than a raffle this Christmas 👍 and very gratefully received when they were delivered today.”    

Kenilworth Soroptimist’s have highlighted the work of the Global Blanket Campaign by creating a series of fabric squares joined together to decorate a Christmas Tree in the annual display of trees in St Nicholas Church, Abbey Fields in Kenilworth. The campaign seeks to raise awareness of the working conditions of women and girls employed in the textile industry around the world. A key focus of the campaign is stamping out trafficking. Find out more at https://www.stopthetraffik.org/campaign/fashion/global-blanket-campaign/    

SI Kenilworth recently celebrated a fabulous and action packed International Night with a wonderful group of women. We welcomed new member Fran into our Club, celebrated our 7 Friendship links and wore orange as part of the UN Action to End Violence against Women and Girls. We were delighted to welcome Sue Beech (SI Coventry) Mary Lloyd (SI Rugby) and Jan Bowden (President of MAR) who joined us for the evening. Our speaker was Katy Berry who told us about the importance  of re-usable sanitary products in such countries as Malawi and India. Club members brought so many pairs of ‘big knickers’ to enable girls not to miss days of schooling that we filled two enormous carrier bags!

SI Kenilworth and District hosted a quiz evening recently to raise funds for a Women’s Refuge. 26 Teams from local organisations took part, including Ladies Circle, Inner Wheel, Lions, and Abbey Hill URC. The Question Master was Barrie Rogers from Lions, who did a brilliant job, and coped well with lots of (shall we say!) interaction from the audience. The questions were by no means easy, and covered a wide range of topics. Everyone had a good time, there was much laughter, banter, and head scratching going on. The winners were the Lions, and the Mayor’s team can second. The evening finished with the usual great Soroptimist raffle. We raised £380 by the end of the evening.

A few of us from SI Kenilworth and SI Solihull enjoyed a few hours with Nisha Ghosh the SIGBI Assistant Programme Director (APD) for Violence & Conflict Resolution and a member of SI Pune, India. It was great opportunity to hear about the Programme Action activities that Nisha’s Club is involved with e.g  the little bags she brought as gifts.   These are made by ladies in the poorest districts of Pune and enable them to support themselves.   They also protect the environment as the bags are re-usable and prevent the dumping of hundreds of throw away plastic bags. Nisha also told us about her role as APD and her work within SIGBI, and the direction of travel SIGBI is taking.