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

  Medway Soroptimists Supporting First Medway Youth Awards on Tuesday, 10 July, at Priestfield Stadium, Gillingham. Medway Youth Council in partnership with Medway Council and other organisations have been encouraging members of the public to nominate young people and adults for the 2018 Medway Youth Awards. The awards, which are being held for the first time this year, aim to help recognise and celebrate the remarkable people who are living, working or attending school in Medway and are helping the community thrive. On the night a group of Medway Soroptimists will be attending this event where they will be hearing about amazing young people who have gone above and beyond to help others Other young people who have overcome difficulties, or who have shown courage and resilience. Those nominated will be made up of young people who attend a school or youth club, who live or work in Medway And are aged between 11 and

Jane and Janet will be attending the Study Day in Belfast at the Europa Hotel on 7 July 2018. The title is ‘Awareness, Advocacy, & Action for Justice’, through the 3Es ( Educate, Enable and Empower). The intention is to feedback to the membership about progress on: the Prison Reform Work the contribution our Transforming Lives Report has made to the agenda, in particular the ‘Transforming Lives’ project funded for 3 years by the Big Lottery; the full results of the slavery survey and how the information gleaned will help address the problems of slavery and trafficking across the UK. Jane and Janet are looking forward to meeting up with old and new Soroptimist friends from across the Federation in Belfast.  On their return they will be feeding back to the wider club membership at the Medway club meeting on 12 July and the Maidstone club meeting on 17 July.

The 5 of us joined 600 other women and children to take part in Race for Life 5km event. Jules joined the runners and completed in 48 mins whilst Wanda, Jenny, Jess and myself walked the route in just over an hour. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and Jenny gave us some insight into the sights we passed on local history and interesting landmarks. A rock choir serenaded us on the way out and on the return whilst clapping and cheering us on. There were many messages in memory of those lost to cancer as well as survivors. They announced the donations from the 600 amounted to £55k and will go to cancer research. Our combined donations are in excess of £350 plus gift aid. A big thank you to all those who have kindly donated and any still wanting to can as it is