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.      

Kenilworth SI members enjoyed an evening recently with Karl Curtis, Director of Reserves and Community Engagement from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.   We learnt more about how the Trust and its volunteers maintain the areas around Kenilworth, such as Parliament’s Piece, Knowle Hill, Kenilworth Common and the creation of spaces called ‘green bridges’ between various areas, to ensure that both flora and fauna can thrive.   And that we, as Soroptimists, can enjoy these spaces – and maybe volunteer for a bit of bramble bashing. Our donation has been put towards purchasing some new equipment like lenses, bug pots and pooters for the education team so they can enable children to explore and learn more about nature.

SI Kenilworth was recently asked to provide refreshments for the flu jab clinics being run this Autumn at the Castle Medical Centre in Bertie Road. On our first outing on Saturday morning, we served around 70 cups of tea and coffee and raised over £70 through voluntary donations for the Birthing Unit being built at Warwick Hospital.   We also answered lots of questions about being Soroptimists.  

At our September business meeting Gordon Cowie of Friends of Sick Children in Malawi (FOSCiM) came to update us on the work of this charity. One of the nurses we have been supporting through a 4 year BSc degree (Paediatrics and health Care)at Mzuzu University graduates this year. Two other nurses are also being supported through this course. The club presented Gordon with a cheque for £2000 towards their fees.