For my presidential year

I hope we can look forward to finally getting off the Zoom ferry and back into more familiar territory.   It will be a year of celebration.    With the return to meetings of family, friends and Soroptimist sisters.   And also the celebration of our Soroptimist centenary.

Centenary Celebrations

Club members have worked together through many months to create our Women of Empowerment Trail.   I know everyone is looking forward to celebrating the culmination of this, our Centenary Project in August.   I feel proud to think that our work will showcase the remarkable women who have and are changing the world for the better.    And also showcase us, the women who have forged the Trail.   I hope Trail followers will know and want to know, more about us as a result.

The charity supported by any money raised by the Trail and associated activities will be a local one – the Parenting Project.   We’ll have a speaker to tell us more about this project in July.

Refuge Arts Project

I’m also looking forward to the start of another event, the Refuge Art Project.    This has enabled by Club’s teamwork and the Arts Society’s generosity, .  Club members have supported the refuge for several years in advocacy.    Plus with the  practicalities of funds and needed items. I am very pleased that we are able to offer this experience.    It is one more way in which we see, hear, recognise and act in response to the needs of the victims of domestic abuse.

International Projects

I want us to continue to support the important work undertaken to improve the health of all and especially women and children in Malawi.

Gill introduced us to the Lend with Care scheme.   This year we will continue to empower women in developing countries with the means to work their way out of poverty.

And finally but not least

In meetings to plan our Women of Empowerment Trail ,  many members have declared themselves not at all creative.   Yet our work as Soroptimists is all about thinking and working creatively.    We seek to create opportunities for women everywhere.    To take control of their lives so that they, their families and communities can flourish.