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Membership Evening

Membership Evening

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A social event entitled ‘What’s a Soroptimist?’ was held at the Pankhurst Centre on 11th May to enable prospective members to meet our members and find out about the club and the organisation. President Rose welcomed everybody and spoke about the Manchester club. Regional President Margaret Molyneux and Regional Membership Officer Pat Williams joined us and gave short talks on Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland and the South Lancashire Region. It was a very sociable and successful evening. Thank you to the Pankhurst Centre for letting us use such an inspiring and historic venue.

New Member induction

New Member induction

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We were delighted to welcome our new member Malgorzata Kmita . She was previously a Soroptimist in Yorkshire and is now living in Manchester. She has already been involved in one of our evenings – Mug Packing for the Women’s Refuges . I’m sure she will be a great asset to our club.

Mugs, Mugs and More Mugs!

Mugs, Mugs and More Mugs!

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We had a fun evening packing 100  mugs with sachets of tea, coffee , sugar and a biscuit . These were carefully wrapped to be given to the women’s refuges . When a woman arrives at the refuge they are given one and we have been told by Gail Heath the CEO of Women’s Aid that they are greatly appreciated. Joining us on the evening was Malgorzata Kmita  who is due to be inducted to the group at our next meeting. Thank you to Pat for offering her house for the occasion and the tea and biscuits .

International Women’s Day 2017

International Women’s Day 2017

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To mark International Women’s Day 2017, Soroptimist International of Manchester donated hundreds of sanitary products to The Monthly Gift. Set up by Christina Ward while she was a student, The Monthly Gift  encourages donations of sanitary products for homeless women and other women in need. Volunteers distribute the products to those that need them most via food banks, refuges and homeless charities. Volunteers have already expanded The Monthly Gift to Nottingham and it is launching also in Leeds.

February Speaker Meeting

February Speaker Meeting

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Dr Erinma Bell was the speaker at our February meeting. She became a co-founder and CEO of her own charity CARISMA (Community Alliance for Renewal Inner South Manchester Area) in 2003. CARISMA is a community based group set up to try and reduce gun crime and offer life chances to young people as an alternative to violence. She spoke about ways of dealing with conflict and the different models she employs to reduce violence. Through the work of CARISMA in association with the police gun crime has reduced by 92%. CARISMA has since merged with Chrysalis – a family support centre which helps migrant families. It was so interesting hearing about parts of her life and work. We were delighted that she came to speak to us.

HEAL Speaker Meeting

HEAL Speaker Meeting

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President Elect Rose and members were pleased to welcome guests from the Act4Africa team to our November Speaker meeting at the Pinewood Hotel. We enjoyed a meal with CEO Martin Smedley and Hilary Yeates, Project Manager, followed by an excellent presentation to bring us up to date with the HEAL Malawi project, which we have undertaken to mark SI Manchester’s 90th year. Hilary told us about Bernard Makupete, their Malawi Team Manager, and how he is getting on with the project. The aim is to train 20 women as Community Mentors and for each of them to form a group of around 25 young women. This is being done in two groups of 10 and the first group has received their training and formed their own mentoring and savings groups, with a current average of 15 young women in each. At this early stage these figures compare favourably with the charity’s experience of their

Friendship Evening

Friendship Evening

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Friendship evening was a bit different this year. We invited other women’s clubs to join us for the evening in the spirit of friendship. We welcomed Katie Pegum from W.I Cottonopolis, and Alma Elmsley and three other members from the Women’s  register from Wilmslow. It was a Lancashire themed evening, the food – Lancashire hotpot and Manchester tart – was all prepared by our members. Val produced a quiz on Lancashire. It was great fun and very enjoyable meeting the other women and hearing about their clubs.

Mary’s Meals Backpack Project

Mary’s Meals Backpack Project

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We had a successful last night packing 30 backpacks for the Mary’s meals charity. It’s lovely to think we can make some children happy with the clothes, pencil cases  and other things we put in the backpacks to help children with limited opportunities for education. It is a great charity supplying meals for children in their schools who would otherwise go hungry and the backpacks are an added bonus for these children.