Charity Performance of ‘Sitting Pretty’ by Amy Rosenthal at Medway Little Theatre is being held on Wednesday 8 May at 7.30pm.  This performance is on behalf of Soroptimist International Medway.  See flyer below for details of where to get tickets at a cost £8 per person and there will also be a raffle with prizes. All proceeds from the evening will be shared between: – Meru Women’s Garden Project Supports some of the poorest women-led households in Kenya, and is entirely focussed on providing opportunities to women and girls who may never otherwise be given the chance to earn an income, and gives them status within their community. It fully embraces the three key areas at the heart of SIGBI’s Programme Focus Goals – Educate, Empower and Enable. Improved food production and education will support women and girls to transform their lives and those of others through

S.I. Medway towns held a wine tasting to raise funds as part of their Soroptimists On Sustainability  (SOS) Project.   On this occasion the money will go to provide microloans for women whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by environmental changes.   In the developing world even very small amounts of money can transform lives by enabling the individuals to start a small business.   An organisation called Lendwithcare arranges it,  the money is paid back and the lender receives updates on how the business is going.    Wine, cheese and chatter –  could there be a more enjoyable way to raise money ?  

A Pancake party was hosted at Janet’s this evening attended by 12 Soroptimists and friends. Donations made amounted to £125 and these are going to Team Mum appeal which is being run by Child.org. A funding application is also being made to Medway Towns Charitable Trust for the sum of £125 to match the money raised. For all donations made by 30 April the UK government will also match fund. So SI Medway will be donating in total £250 which with government funding will be £500 in the end.     The monies will ensure that Mums in Kenya particularly in rural areas will be able to attend pregnancy support groups so they are armed with vital health information and support to keep their babies safe.

Sue presented Ben Jenkins with a donation and a small gift following his informative talk on the work of the British Red Cross (BRC) covering Kent and Sussex, that relates to work as a club we have been undertaking on modern slavery. Ben who is the BRC Service Manager for Refugee Support stated that in 2017 there were 26,350 asylum applications, of which 14,767 were successful of which 5866 were children under the age of 18. He quoted from a poem called Home by Warsan Shire, a female British Somali poet: No one leaves home unless Home is the mouth of a shark You only run for the border When you see the whole city running as well BRC uses 1 to 1 casework to thoroughly explore the situation of individual asylum seekers and gives information to advocates acting on their behalf, liaising with other charities.

At the December business meeting, the Medway Soroptimists filled several hampers for local women’s refuges. Members had donated an extensive range of luxury items including toiletries, toys and food stuffs for Christmas to fill the hampers. Personalised Christmas gifts had also been purchased by members for all the children aged between 1 and 15 years so that their mothers can give them a present on Christmas Day.

Angela, Janet, Caroline and Jane were volunteer stewards on behalf of the UK charity Missing People  https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/ at the G4 Christmas concert held at Rochester Cathedral on 24 November. As stewards they were responsible for meeting and greeting the 850 people who attended the evening concert in such a beautiful and iconic setting, selling programmes and doing the bucket collection.  Hopefully they will have raised nearly £500 for the charity’s annual Home for Christmas Appeal from the donations made as people left the concert. The photo was taken after the concert when they had the chance to meet with (from left to right) Nick, Lewis, Jonathan and Mike from G4.

Medway Towns Soroptimists enjoyed an evening helping charity Blythswood Care make care boxes. Shoe boxes are filled with everyday essentials, such as toothpaste, soap, warm hats and gloves as well as small treats, small toys, makeup or sweets. The boxes are then wrapped with cheerful paper and distributed to people in need at Christmas. Angela kindly hosted, giving over her living room to wrapping paper, scissors and sellotape. Louise organised the goodies donated by members and friends of the club and we took turns to fill and wrap the shoe boxes. By the end of the evening we had filled 90 boxes!   For more information on the Care boxes visit Blythswood Care

Several members of SI The Medway Towns visited The COOK Kitchen in Sittingbourne this month. The environment, and particularly the problems of plastic, are high on our Programme Action agenda. We are in the process of researching plastic waste and the group enjoyed a tour of the Kitchen had a presentation from COOK Packaging Manager Sarah Canning. Sarah talked through some of the challenges businesses face as they look to find sustainable solutions to packaging. The Soroptimists On Sustainability kick off meeting will be held shortly to define the aims of the project and decide next steps.

S.I. Medway Towns arranged for a fun day out for 14 young carers at Diggerland in Cuxton at the end of the summer holidays. There are about 180 young carers in Medway, aged between 4 and 19 years old, who have taken on the responsibility of caring for a disabled or sick family member.   They have very little leisure time and very few days out so the opportunity to run around and just be kids for the day is a big treat. The young carers were able to actually drive JCBs, Dumper Trucks and even a Police Car and to dig enormous holes with a JCB but this year the most popular rides were the dodgems and Spin Dizzy – a great big machine which has a long arm with a bucket at the end which has been converted into seating.   Once up in the