The Soroptimist International London Chilterns Region on Saturday 15 June was a great success! SI Milton Keynes, hosted the event on behalf of SILC President Kate Belinis continuing Kate’s theme of “Celebrating Inspirational Women”. The venue was perfect, with 33 people attending in person and with great technology enabling 14 Members of the Region to join us on Zoom. We were really lucky to be able to use the building and facilities of MK SNAP (Milton Keynes Special Needs Advancement Project), because Angie Novell, a Member of SI Milton Keynes, is the Chief Executive of the charity.
President Kate Belinis (pictured here on the left) started the event by saying how proud we should all be with all the Soroptimist celebrations this year – our Federation SIGBI is 90, SI Greater London Club is 100 and SI High Wycombe is 60!
Our headline speaker, Kurshida Mirza BEM, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire (pictured above on the right) www.highsheriffofbuckinghamshire.com did not disappoint. Kurshida is the first British Muslim woman of Asian heritage to take on this Office. Kurshida is informed by and rooted in her core Islamic values of Peace, Justice, and Love for humanity, and her Interfaith work. Inspired by her mother who always put the needs of others before her own giving voice to many women when they had no one to turn to, Kurshida is focused on creating opportunities to further inclusivity. In her year of Office her plans include prioritising activities, interventions and visits to charities and organisations that work with diverse communities to tackle social exclusion, strengthen communities and create partnerships. Click here to watch the 33 minute video recording from Zoom: https://youtu.be/2c_THJJJjxs. 
The video starts with Soroptimist International London Chilterns President Kate Belinis introducing the conference. Then Angie Novell from the host Club SI Milton Keynes, CEO of MK SNAP where the event is taking place gives a warm welcome and explains about her work with the charity (Angie is pictured here on the right of the Ukrainian singers). The Soroptimist Vison and Mission is read by Milton Keynes Soroptimist’s newest and youngest Member, Summer Nunes.
Kurshida is quietly spoken and told us openly and honestly about her life illustrating her strengths, starting with her family’s journey from India to the UK. In India they lived in a big house with lots of family members close by, so living in small rented accommodation in Birmingham must have been a bit shock for a 7 year old. She experienced a lot of racism at school in Birmingham. She wanted to rise above her own expectations – let alone the low ones of a school that only expected girls to get married or work in a local factory. She got a job at GKN in the office and did her A levels at night-school so that she could go to university, the path she would have taken in India because the dream stayed with her and her parents. She was the first in her family to go away to University – some family members were concerned that would become too educated to get married but she proved them wrong by meeting her husband at University. She says that her strength came from her strong faith, not letting the status quo get the better of her, not conforming, her parents were strong and inspiring wanting their daughters to follow their own paths. She explained that in Islam women are not just equal, they have a higher status because they bear children. Women are gifted with special strengths, different to men. For her feminism is not be like a man, but to be a woman – kind, patient, generous – she wants to be accepted for what she is which is difficult when the world wants you to be something different. She found she was often looked over for promotion – as a woman of colour she suffered both gender and race discrimination. She recommends we look at research publication from the Fawcett Society https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/broken-ladders “Broken Ladders: The myth of meritocracy for women of colour in the workplace.” There is institutional racism everywhere, forcing women of colour to conform and locking them out of career progression.
In her role as High Sheriff, Kurshida wants to make a difference, taking inspiration from her faith, “we have more in common than that which divides us”, we are all different but we all have something that connects us. She quoted from the Quran – “We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another. In God’s eyes, the most honoured of you are the ones most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware.” Her theme is to create opportunities for diversity, through partnerships, starting conversations. Exclusion from school has a link to criminality, she has visited a prison and many prisoners have learning difficulties so we need intervention to break the cycle. She is working with Milton Keynes and Bucks colleges to inspire young people. She recruited 8 female college “champions” to travel her journey with her this year and work on the projects – what a great idea!
Kurshida also informed us that most High Sheriffs have a Chaplain to attend on them and assist in matters of faith, whereas she appointed 7 Chaplains from the 7 main faiths. She says it has been amazing working with them all, inviting conversation and sharing of thoughts.
She ended by saying that she felt it was important in a position like this, to give back, “not just for me, but for all women like me”.
A wonderful speech that these notes don’t do justice to so please play the video, listen to her words and be inspired.
As a thank you gift she was presented with a glass domed plant garden made by one of the MK SNAP clients (she is holding it in the photo above).
Programme Action filled the next part of the Programme – the heart of all Soroptimist Clubs. Pam Robertson, the London Chilterns Programme Action Officer introduced SI Milton Keynes Club Chair Sue Key (pictured above between Kate Belinis and the High Sheriff) gave a moving presentation about their inspirational project the Violet Awards and more projects too. Click here to download Sue’s presentation: SI MK Violet Awards Presentation for Region 2024 Sue started with SI Milton Keynes Violet Awards project. It began in 2021, the centenary year for Soroptimist International, and like all clubs they were looking for ways to celebrate the anniversary and women. They had the idea that there are unsung heroes in the charities supported by the Club who need to be recognised and thanked. They decided to hold an Awards evening and we named it the Violet Awards, after Violet Richardson Ward, one of the founding members of the first Soroptimist club back in 1921. Her life time motto was “It’s what you do that counts”. These words resonated with us, especially celebrating our 100th birthday but because these awards were an opportunity:
- To value and recognise the work of women to support their communities, which can largely go unnoticed,
- To celebrate their achievements above and beyond what they usually do, the going that extra mile,
- To improve the general wellbeing of those staff and volunteers, even more so during Covid and
- To advance good citizenship and community development.
They developed a criterion and set of qualities and asked each charity to nominate two people, staff or volunteers. All nominations were judged and marked against a judging score sheet. They were looking for an outright winner. An evening was earmarked and all the charities and their nominees were invited. Each nomination was read out by their own manager so that they understood why they had been chosen and it gave the managers the opportunity in front of their peers and the other charities to say thank you out loud. This project was about celebrating, valuing and recognising women who work so tirelessly to help others. It was about hearing their stories of devotion. These unsung heroes who for a change, they wanted to put at the front and say thank you for all you do. The evening itself is emotional and inspiring, highlighting role models for us all. Because if they did not turn up and help our charities, more people within the community would be suffering unnecessarily. These women, some as volunteers, deal with very complex issues and help very vulnerable people. Some of them have been those vulnerable people who have been able to pick themselves up and now want to help others. SI MK have held these Awards twice now and the charities tell them how valuable is is to them, saying thank you to their people but also in being able to network with each other and support each other.
One of the Founders of the Ukraine Appeal won the Second Violet Awards in 2023, which is why they wanted to come and entertain us at this event. She said the award gave them “a feeling of togetherness. That night will remain very special in our hearts and for sure will boost the spirit of fellow Ukrainians.”
Sue also told us about some examples of projects for SIGBI’s 90th – they made the Soroptimist logo out of 90 items of food for the foodbank, 90 pairs of pants, 90 bras, 90 pairs of socks and made a donation to a Soroptimist Libertas Project for a cervical cancer clinic in Uganda http://tinyurl.com/yhhn97uz – were we inspired? Oh yes!
After Sue’s presentation we heard wonderful songs and music from three young women in Milton Keynes from the Ukraine Appeal wanting to thank SI Milton Keynes for their support. Soroptimists from around the Region couldn’t resist getting up and dancing to the Abba song at the end of the the set! The two photos above are of the singers receiving flowers to thank them, and of Members of the Region dancing and singing along! If you click here you can watch the video recording from Zoom – it is 1 hour long https://youtu.be/voQ3Bz3MaP0
Anne Child was our speaker after lunch. Anne is member of SI Thames Valley Club and a Trustee of The SIGBI Diamond Education Grant. (DEG) – https://sigbi.org/what-we-do/our-charities/deg/. This charitable body was set up in 1972 by SIGBI to provide grants to assist women to update their skills after employment breaks or to acquire new skills to improve their opportunities for employment and promotion. Anne started by playing this video presentation (less than 2 mins) https://youtu.be/ZRs406JGXxU. Anne delivered a presentation – you can download her slides here: DEG SILCR Anne Child Presentation Anne explained how members and Clubs can support this work, both practically and financially and how the grant aims to change women’s lives. Plus, there was fun quiz to test our knowledge at the end!
Our last speaker of the day was Dishi Attwood (pictured here) – the inspirational Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) Director of Membership and Development. Dishi is always a joy to hear – she is full of ideas, energy and enthusiasm. If she was a stick of rock she would have SOROPTIMIST written right the way through her! You can click here to watch this 53 minute recording from Zoom, which includes Dishi’s presentation and the wrapping up of the conference: https://youtu.be/j9BjZ9gxHoI
Dishi started by reflecting on Kurshida’s speech – she loved the idea of College Champions, and also of “being who you are”. She also congratulated Milton Keynes on the Violet Richardson Awards and thinks it is a great idea! Dishi spoke about the how the SIGBI Board is changing, with modernisation to cut back bureaucracy plus technology – although hybrid events like this one are difficult without the right equipment. She said what we all know, if you want something doing – ask a busy woman! She wants us all to share the best of ourselves. Programme Action and Membership are working closely together. Lindsay Green the Programme Director has spent time documenting the role that she took on – the number of committees she is expected to attend, and the number of volunteer hours so that more can be delegated. There are less steps to becoming a Director of the Federation now. The Hub has changed things so that SIGBI can now communicate directly with Members – this is all part of organisational change which we are all adapting to. She spoke about the importance of valuing our Members, celebrating all the positives, with great story telling to share our good news to a wider audience. She told us how many Clubs she has started and new Members she has encouraged to join or support us through Linked In and joining Business Networks. At these Business networking events we need to sell ourselves as people so that other people can get to know us. “Know, Like, Trust” – is how people will come to join, sometimes starting as an Associate Member before deciding if a Club or an e-Club is right for them. She has worked to streamline the process for starting a new Club – now it only needs 8 Members, and 1 project for 3 months – and to meet our objects so that we maintain consultative status at the UN. Clubs support Members, and can’t sit back waiting for women to come to us – we must go to where the women are. She told us that the Board have engaged a PR agency for 12 months to run a campaign to recruit like-minded women – age doesn’t matter. We have to be mindful with Social Media that it isn’t just an echo chamber of Soroptimists telling Soroptimists who tell Soroptimists – we need to tag outside organisations and make our news attractive to non-Soroptimists so that they will want to find out more about us. Soroptimists are good at giving, but we need reciprocity from those we give to so that they support us in return. The “spray and pray” approach needs to be replaced with the “land and expand” approach.
Dishi encourages everyone to tell their story, with emotion – because emotion connects people. She talked about pitching what you want to put across:
- T – topline – standing up for women – getting a warm glow
- E – event – something that happened – Dishi made a dress for “Dress a Girl”
- E – emotion – she saw a photo of a girl in Africa wearing the dress she had made – it was her first ever new dress….
- N – next – why wouldn’t you want to join?
If your story touches you it will draw other women to you.
She finished by asking Soroptimists to volunteer to join the SIGBI Membership Team – you don’t need to have been an Officer, just be passionate about recruitment and retention of Soroptimists.
Dishi encourages everyone to book to attend the SIGBI Conference in Edinburgh 1-3 Nov https://sigbi.org/edinburgh2024/
Dishi took a few questions at the end: it appears that the decline in Membership is slowing, and Dishi encourages Members with problems to contact SIGBI. Also any ideas, thoughts email her and the other Directors who welcome interaction. There was a point about the Modernisation Resolutions that will be voted on at the General Meeting in Edinburgh. Dishi asked Clubs to engage – and use their vote for or against as is their right.
Region President Kate Belinis wrapped up the event, thanking all of our speakers, attendees and importantly SI Milton Keynes for their first class hospitality, including the delicious lunch! Everyone said how much they had enjoyed the event – and it certainly fulfilled the brief of “Celebrating Inspirational Women”.