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.

We had the very happy task of renewing our Friendship link with SI Lower Hutt New Zealand when Elaine Moffatt and her husband Bob stayed with us on their tour of the UK.   As ever, we enjoyed ourselves as Elaine told us a little of her experiences during her time as Pan Pacific Federation President.   Her tales of her visit to Papua New Guinea were certainly hair raising and not the sort of thing we are used to in leafy Kenilworth – all the more reason to support women and children in conditions far less fortunate than we take as normal.      

  We had a wonderful time celebrating with our German friendship link club, SI Remscheid, the 50th anniversary of their Charter.   We had great fun chatting and sharing ideas with Clubs from all over Germany, Belgium and Holland.   And of course eating our body weight in cake over the course of the weekend. Saturday night saw us all glammed up for a posh dinner, I wore my chain which was the cause of much admiration and not a little envy!   I also got to hobnob with Barbara Kohl, President of the German Union of Soroptimists and had a long talk with the Director of Remscheid High School.    SI Remscheid have raised 10,000 Euros to enable the school to expand its One World Class teaching programme for refugees (many unaccompanied) from one to three classes by paying for two more teachers for at least one year.   A local project with an international element. I