Diary of the month Feb/March 2023
Standing up for women and girls.
At our business meeting in February, there were lots of ideas and offers of help from members in planning future events for the forthcoming year.
What can we achieve as Soroptimists?
Chris Bradley was our guest speaker at our February supper meeting. He came to talk to us on a subject we all hold dear, our Wyre Forest and the wildlife that live there. He lives in a cottage in the forest and showed us all some wonderful pictures of the forest and its inhabitants. He was a very knowledgeable person on this subject and there was not a query that he could not answer in great detail.
Violence against women was again highlighted this month. Read our blog on the SIGBI website about the deaths of women by their partners/husbands/ boyfriends. Truly shocking.
1st March: Several members attended the AGM of Homestart – a charity we support throughout the year. It was good to see how many families they support with money from grants and donations which has left their charity in a good place.
On the 4th March a Regional meeting was held in Redditch and we celebrated International Women’s Day. Purple and pearls were worn by Soroptimists. Two inspirational speakers gave us an informative and amusing talk on Women’s football and Immigration.
8th March- International Women’s Day. A Celebration of women everywhere.
10th March: A Great event took place today. This Soroptimist fundraiser for period poverty was to raise awareness of period poverty in our local area. 188 packets of sanitary products were collected at the event from local moms who attended. These items were given to our Homestart charity to be distributed amongst local women and girls in need. £130 was raised from a raffle on the night. With further donations, another £130 has been given. We plan to toilet twin with a school in Africa with this money.
Our March supper meeting held a Water/ Wine raffle where we all brought a bottle of either water or wine and took the risk what we received. All the proceeds will go to Water Aid
22nd March: World water Day. How lucky are we? being able to just turn on the taps to get fresh water day after day.
On the 25th of this month Soroptimists held a wonderful event in Bromsgrove. A very enjoyable afternoon was spent at the MAR public speaking competition. Neither of our candidates, Maisie Wall and Harry Gardiner were placed in the competition but it was a very useful and informative experience for them both. Below is a photo of them with their teacher Sophie Roberts. Sophie is very inspiring and supportive of her pupils – and it shows.
