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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.

Stop the Traffik – Speaker Meeting

Stop the Traffik – Speaker Meeting

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We had a very inspiring talk from Hannah Flint from Stop the Traffik at our Speaker Dinner on Modern Day Slavery. It was wonderful to have members from our other clubs there, including Regional President Elect Margaret and Regional Vice President Margaret, to hear her as it is such an important and relevant topic. She gave us valuable information on what we all should be looking for with regards to modern day slavery and who to contact if we have any concerns. Thanks to Val for arranging such a great speaker.

Running for Soroptimism!

Running for Soroptimism!

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On Sunday 4th September, SI Manchester’s Yvonne Healing successfully completed the Salford 10k road race in 55 minutes. Not content with this, she also completed the same distance around the historic Aintree Race-course just a month later. In doing so, she’s raised an amazing £160 towards the club’s 90th Year Project –  HEAL Malawi. She says many people passed her and commented on her distinctive ‘Ask me why I’m a Soroptimist’ t-shirt! The club wishes to thank Therapy First who sponsored her entry in both races and for the donation of £200, which they raised by providing before and after race massage treatments.  

Strawberry Tea

Strawberry Tea

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We had a great afternoon at Yvonne’s house on Sunday at the annual charity Strawberry Afternoon tea for members and friends. We had a produce stall selling home made cakes made by the members as well as other produce  and crafts that had been donated. Of course we had to have a raffle with plenty of prizes! It was a great success and raised more than £500 for our general charities. There were plenty of cakes left over which we donated to Cornerstone who were delighted to receive them. A big thanks to Yvonne!

Fundraising for our 90th Year Project

Fundraising for our 90th Year Project

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We had a successful morning at the Car Boot Sale at Bowler’s, Trafford Park on Sunday 7th August. We were there to raise money for our 90th year project supporting the Act4Africa HEAL Malawi initiative. Thanks to plenty of donations from the club members £285 was raised! Plenty of goods were left over and we hope to do another event in a few months. A fun day for a great cause!

“Generation Hope (Mary’s Meals)” Film Screening

“Generation Hope (Mary’s Meals)” Film Screening

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Regional President Sandy joined us for our July meeting. In place of a speaker members watched the latest video from the charity Mary’s Meals entitled “Generation Hope.” It was filmed in Malawi, India and Haiti and features not only some of the children who have benefited from the school feeding stations, but also Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, the founder of Mary’s Meals. Magnus talks about his inspiration for starting the charity which now provides meals for over a million school children in the developing world each day, and he highlights how much there is still to do in this area. President Sandy also joined us for our Business meeting and will be coming to our session in October when we will make up our backpacks for the Mary’s Meals backpack project.

90th Anniversary Afternoon Tea

90th Anniversary Afternoon Tea

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We had a lovely Champagne tea on Saturday the 18th of June at Stanneylands Hotel to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the official Charter of our club. President Molly, Past President Sue and Honorary Member Yvonne in turn spoke about how the Soroptomist organisation first started in America and how it spread around the world. The first UK club was chartered in London and Manchester was the second club chartered. The enthusiasm we have to help women and children 90 years on is still of utmost importance to us as a club, and is reflected in our Programme Action projects locally, nationally and internationally. It is amazing to reach 90 years and look forward to the next 90.