Advocacy – The winner is SI Jamestown
SI Jamestown – Supporting new Domestic Violence Bill
SI Jamestown has been lobbying the Ministry of Social Care, Constituency Empowerment and Community Development to better the protection for women and children in Barbados.
Domestic Violence has been on the rise in younger and younger persons households in Barbados. The Conflict Resolution Committee of SI Jamestown decided to do two pieces of work – lobby and advocate on behalf of these young women and girls as well as a town hall meeting fleshing out the background of much of the abuse reported in Barbados. The aspect of the project involved lobbying the advisors to the Ministers and permanent secretaries.
Also nominated were SI Bilston & District and SI Chennai
SI Bilston and District – Spoons
SI Bilston and District have an ongoing project with Karma Nirvana by selling and distributing their lapel spoon badges to raise awareness of Forced Marriage. People who wear spoon badges are able to explain the significance of the issue. In spite of new legislation there is still much work to be done raising awareness of professionals and agencies. Through the SoroptiVoiceBlog SI Bilston has already drawn attention to the campaign worldwide.
SI Chennai – Ostracism
SI Chennai by taking up the cause of gross human rights violation suffered by the 10 ostracised families has involved itself in legislative advocacy besides providing material help to the victims and created large scale awareness of their plight. SI Chennai decided to help 10 families of the fishermen community in Pazhaverkadu. These 10 families could not even carry on their livelihood of fishing, for the only reason that they were not willing to pay 10 percent of the profits from their catch of seafood!
Economic Empowerment – The winner is SI Leigh and District
SI Leigh and District – Just the Job
The aim of this project was to help unemployed women into work, workshops addressing low self esteem, personal presentation, provide the clothes and confidence to present well at interview, empower them with increased confidence, better self worth, hope and financial independence.
Club members who are Image Consultant, Beauty Therapist and Job Search Experts supported by club members delivered interactive workshops providing practical advice and guidance to achieve interview success.
Also nominated were SI St Vincent and the Grenadines, and SI Pretoria.
SI St Vincent & The Grenadines – Youth Summer Programme
It was observed that young ladies in St.Vincent and the Grenadines lacked skills in the areas of etiquette, communication, internet safety, entrepreneurial skills and personal care. This has led to a decreased in self esteem and girls not having a collective voice. A special program dubbed Girls on Fire aimed at empowering girls and equipping them with the necessary skills to build self esteems and equipping girls with skills for self sufficiency was developed by the club. This program ran for one week July 13th to 17th and was held at the Girls Guides Headquarters.
SI Pretoria – Kibeho Holy Land Embroiderers
SI Pretoria and women from their initiative, the Mapula Embroidery project received funding to train women in Kibeho, Rwanda to embroider, design and manage their own project enabling them to become economically empowered.The income of the sales of their goods will encourage the women not to beg for food during the Kibeho Holy Pilgrimages. This project involved the training of 12 women to design, embroider, manage and sell their products. It also involved fundraising, budgets and reporting by members of SI Pretoria. The women were trained to manage their own product and within 6 months have already achieved a huge amount.
Environmental Sustainability & Disaster Relief – The winner is SI Jamestown
SI Jamestown – Transferring knowledge of the medicinal value of plants to younger children
SI Jamestown saw that there has been a lack of information, even a loss of knowledge regarding the medicinal value of plants. Though the Brownies were successfully working on four badges: ‘Out and About’, ‘Gardeners’, ‘Environment’, ‘Finding Your Way’, their appetite for knowledge has been whet, and their passion for the outdoors and what it can provide to whole populates. The project involved formulating the presentations and carefully choosing the untouched spaces of Barbados.
Also nominated were SI Abuja and SI Windermere.
SI Abuja – Solar Powered Bole
The project enables the girl child to concentrate on her education and women on their economic activities instead of wasting time looking for clean water. From this project they now have clean drinking water thereby reducing the incidence of outbreak of water born diseases. This project involved going into the very interior of the Area council to get the community that lacks water and geological survey to make sure that good and clean water will be got there,,The community head had to be involved to assure the security of the equipment especially the solar pennel and pumps.
SI Windermere – Samaras Aid
Samaras Aid send out pregnancy and new baby boxes of essential items to refugee camps. Pregnant women and new babies are at risk in refugee camps due to the overcrowding and a lack of healthcare facilities. Samaras Aid provide the transport for the boxes and provide a list of the items required. Each member provided items for the boxes. Two boxes were packed and taken to the reception point locally before dispatching to the refugee camps. One for a pregnant woman and one for a baby girl 0-3 months old. Members and friends had also knitted 5 blankets and several baby and children s clothes which were donated to the charity in addition to the 2 boxes. The club member delivering the boxes spent time helping with the preparation of the boxes for the journey.
Food Security & Healthcare – The winner is SI Madurai
SI Madurai – Construction and Donation of Two rooms & equipment for children affected by Cerebal Palsy
This project provided purified drinking water, thereby ensuring good health for women and children of Narasingampatti village. This project was chosen as women and girls of Narasingampatti village, Madurai had to carry drinking water from far off places to their houses or directly fill from the tap which was unhygienic. This project involved of construction of building by Aroghya Welfare Trust and installation of a 2000 litre drinking water RO plant at the village in cooperation with the village Panchayat.
Also nominated were SI Pune Metro East and SI Kenilworth and District
SI Pune Metro East – Medical Outreach
This project was chosen to ensure that women and girls are able to have access to the highest attainable standard in medical/health care and in various aspects pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal care/ Pediatric care/ Outpatient regular medical care for ailments
SI Kenilworth & District – Child Mortality in Malawi
This Project was chosen to allow SI Kenilworth and District to have a better understanding of the issues around child mortality in Malawi, aswell as the importance of adequate training needed by nurses to be able to care for sick children. One of the club members visited Malawi and met/ established links with the Vice-Principal of the University of Malawi Kamuzu College of Nursing, as well as the lead tutors of the course to train qualified paediatric nurses. The result of this is that the club has a new Friendship link – with SI Blantyre. Tea towels, designed from drawings by the sick children, have been sold within club to add to their fund raising.
Learning Opportunities- The winner is SI Bangor and District
SI Bangor and District – Itala Project
SI Bangor wanted to raise awareness of the importance of friendship links and international education. They held a social event with a friendship emphasis and international guests. There was a guest speaker and slide show presentation on a Mothers of Africa project in Liberia. There was information on birthing facility and resource need.
Also nominated were SI Bournemouth and SI Nottingham.
SI Nottingham – Education For Ebola Victims
The money raised was to help support SI Freetown and FOCEM (The Foundation for Children of Ebola-affected Medical Workers) to provide education scholarships to children orphaned by Ebola. This will also help ensure some young girls do not lose their chance of education or are forced into inappropriate alternatives. This project included a number of activities, including a fashion show, concert, and wine tasting event to raise money. So far 26 children are being supported and attending school, their progress is being monitored by FOCEM .
SI Bournemouth – STEM
By running a challenge aimed at girls and providing criteria that appeal to girls SI Bournemouth hope to encourage girls to choose STEM subject at GCSE and continue to do A level and Degree level and choose a STEM based career. SI Bournemouth started a Challenge in 2012 for girls in Key Stage 3 years 9 and 10, and this was amended to Girls in years 8 and 9 when we realised that many girls choose their GCSE options in year 8 as well as year 9.The Challenge involves researching, designing and making something to help people in the developing world that is sustainable and usable. The focus is on the process rather than producing a technologically perfect working model at the end. The challenge is judged by people from local businesses, Bournemouth University Professors and staff from Bournemouth Borough Council using judging criteria approved by the British Science Association. The number of girls entering the Challenge has grown and there were 204 this year. Some of the girls in the initial Challenge are now in the 6th form and acted as mentors to the girls in year 8 and 9 in their school.
Violence against women – The winner is SI Calcutta
SI Calcutta – Legal lessons for young women
A Legal Aid Camp was held for teenage girls from underprivileged backgrounds and their parents where they were introduced to legal resources available when faced with issues like child marriage, dowry, sexual harassment, rape, property and divorce. SI Calcutta conducts tutorials for the students of a school for underprivileged girls. The Camp was facilitated by faculty & students of JCC Law College. Initially, the participants were introduced to resources available when faced with issues such as child marriage, dowry, sexual harassment, rape, property disputes, and divorce. The students, all girls and mostly first generation learners, were encouraged not to give up on education and to resist marriage before the legal age.
Also nominated were SI Bingley and SI Kenilworth and District.
SI Bingley – The Friends Bookmark Project
Introducing the Friends bookmarks to primary aged pupils and secondary girls (and boys) across the whole of the Bradford District Bingley are educating the youngsters, empowering and enabling them to develop healthy relationships in order to stay safe. This Project was chosen as media reports and court cases have highlighted the vulnerability of children of sexual abuse within Bradford’s local community. The successful launch of the bookmarks at Trinity All Saints’ Primary School, Bingley showcased how to develop the skills and expertise of the children so that they feel empowered to challenge inappropriate behaviours shown towards them. The bookmarks have been distributed across the Bradford Metropolitan District.
SI Kenilworth – Promoting PTC
Kenilworth educated visitors to the Leamington Peace Festival about the plight of women and girls who are trafficked and forced into prositution, empowering them to help by signing a petition to ban ‘sex for sale’ advertising.This project was chosen to support Purple Teardrop Campaign, which is a Soroptimist initiative, and work in partnership with their mother club, SI Coventry, and sister club SI Leamington & Warwick. The issue we tackled was that of trafficking and modern day slavery, educating others about the signs they should look out for in their neighbourhood to identify premises where trafficked victims might be held and, if they were suspicious, what actions they could take to inform the relevant authorities. From this project they raised funds through sale of PTC pins and pink and purple bedding plants to reimburse us for the costs of dressing the stand in purple balloons and bunting.