It is useful for Soroptimists to understand how we contribute to the United Nations (UN).

Today on 22 June 2020, Kent Association for the Blind (KAB) is celebrating their Centenary event to mark the 100 years of service they have given to supporting sight impaired people to live independent lives in and around Kent since 1920.

One of our newer members in SI Medway and Maidstone, Jules Taylor likes the outdoor lifestyle and keeping active by taking part in Park runs and triathlons.

As reports appeared in the media about the alarming increase in domestic abuse incidents during lockdown, Angela Howe contacted our local provider, Clarion Housing to ask if there was anything Soroptimists could do to help. 

We held our first Zoom Coffee Morning with our friendship link club SI Osnabruck in Germany this morning with 15 Soroptimists joining in.  Soroptimists on the call were joining in from Cyprus, Osnabruck, Surrey, Ruislip, Medway and Maidstone. It was a great opportunity for us to catch up with our Soroptimist friends that we have known since 2002 and also introduce new ones.  We were able to share with each other our experiences of living under lockdown and how some of the restrictions are slowly being lifted in certain regions of Germany and Cyprus. Angela shared with newer members how the friendship between the two clubs was originally established during Julia's Presidential year following a chance meeting in a restaurant 'loo' in France with a German Soroptimist, whilst attending a SI LeQuesnoy Friendship weekend.  The rest has become history with lots of enjoyable exchange visits

SI Medway and Maidstone, like many other clubs, received a request for people with sewing skills to make drawstring laundry bags and scrubs for the NHS.   The call out was for pillow cases to be made into drawstring bags so that nursing staff at the end of their shift could put their uniform into the bag and then pop the whole thing in the wash without having to touch the clothing further and risk possible onward transmission of the Covid19 virus. Several members of the club responded to the request. Maya Bangar contacted Medway Scrubbers through their Facebook page and made several tops for staff in the Medway Maritime delivery suite and Carol Infanti made 20 laundry bags. In north Kent, 3716 bags have been sewn in total by volunteers with Pulling Together Kent.  Kent Police have requested 400 60x60 bags so that’s the

Today saw the opening of our Virtual Sorops Coffee Shop celebrating VE Day.  We had 17 of our  Soroptimist members joining us from Bournemouth, Cyprus, Farnham, London, Middlesex as well as Medway and Maidstone, where we are all in lockdown. This was the first time some of us had met as 12 members had joined SI Medway in April after the closure of our daughter club, SI Maidstone and so we were able to give a warm welcome to our new members and introduce ourselves. Who knew we had such interesting members?  Members shared something about themselves and included being a ballroom dancing champion, riding an elephant bare back, travelling to 100 countries, trip to Japan and hearing about Soroptimists for first time, hosting Japanese Soroptimists wearing slippers everywhere, born in India, living in South Korea, managing to ascent a climbing wall, helping a neighbour

Each month Medway members bring to our club meetings, food donations and essential items as identified by the Medway Foodbank to meet the increasing demands on their service. In April, it was highlighted by the Trussell Trust that long life milk and milk powder were urgently needed as they were in short supply across most supermarkets and a message had gone out via Whatsapp asking people to check their cupboards for these items and donate them. As a result contact was made with our Medway Foodbank who confirmed what they needed in addition to the milk items and this list was circulated to all our members.  One of our members co-ordinated the response, collecting our food donations and shopping using those monies donated by members.  These items were then delivered to the Foodbank, where June Tottman came out to collect the shopping and was grateful