{"id":1003,"date":"2018-09-10T21:33:06","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T20:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-towns\/?page_id=1003"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:19:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:19:01","slug":"friendship-links","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/friendship-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Friendship Links"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h3>Friendship Link Coordinators<\/h3>\n<p>Angela Howe is SI Medway and Maidstone&#8217;s friendship link coordinator. She is responsible for communicating with our 6 friendship links.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width=&#8221;6&#8243; gap=&#8221;30&#8243; grid_id=&#8221;vc_gid:1770908009299-18e9813e-f907-1&#8243; include=&#8221;6948&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Our 6 Friendship Link Clubs<\/h3>\n<p>With SI Maidstone members transferring across they have brought 3 of their friendship link clubs with them to join with the 2 friendship links previously with SI Medway. This year we have a brand new friendship link with SI Chaguanas in Trinidad and Tobago. Annette Davies met with Christine Cole at the SIGBI London Conference in November and it was suggested we have a Friendship Link. Thus was agreed and put in place and we received the Friendship Certificate in January 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The 6 clubs are: &#8211;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>SI Accra &#8211; Ghana<\/li>\n<li>SI Chaguanas &#8211; Trinidad and Tobago<\/li>\n<li>SI Heswall and District \u2013 UK<\/li>\n<li>SI Le Quesnoy \u2013 France<\/li>\n<li>SI Osnabruck \u2013 Germany<\/li>\n<li>SI Voorburg \u2013 Netherlands<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>What are Friendship Links?<\/h3>\n<p>Friendship Links are ways in which Clubs come together to partner for furthering the objectives of Soroptimist International (SI). The Millennium Development Goal 8 is to develop a global partnership for meeting the needs of development. SI translates this into Friendship Links. Friendship Links are vital to all Soroptimist Clubs. They are the key to the International Soroptimist world.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Friendship Link with SI Osnabruck<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>SI Medway has been linked with <a href=\"https:\/\/clubosnabrueck.soroptimist.de\">SI Osnabruck<\/a> since 2002.<\/p>\n<p>SI Osnabruck was formed on 20 October 2001 when Julia Search was SI\u00a0Medway\u2019s Club President and keen to develop our\u00a0international links. Long term friendships were established\u00a0and one of those is between Julia and Ilse Heinzen-Dammeier\u00a0from Osnabruck club.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_single_image image=&#8221;1004&#8243; img_size=&#8221;large&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;1005&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]Ilse was visiting Kent and staying with Julia.<\/p>\n<p>They are both seen here\u00a0together at Julia\u2019s having been joined by another Medway\u00a0member, Jane Barnes. They took advantage of the opportunity\u00a0to catch upon the news of what has been happening for each\u00a0club in relation to\u00a0membership, communication and programme\u00a0action projects and how we can work together and share good\u00a0practice.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_column_text]Following an invitation from SI Osnabruck\u2019s\u00a0President Marie-Luise to visit them this year \u2013\u00a0work is underway planning SI Medway\u2019s next\u00a0friendship weekend visit in December that will\u00a0coincide with the popular Christmas Market\u00a0season.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;][vc_single_image image=&#8221;1006&#8243; img_size=&#8221;full&#8221; alignment=&#8221;center&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width=&#8221;3&#8243; gap=&#8221;10&#8243; grid_id=&#8221;vc_gid:1770908009311-d8a36e13-97d8-4&#8243; include=&#8221;4635,4634,4636,4637,4638,4639,4640,4641&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h3>Friendship Link with Le Quesnoy<\/h3>\n<p>SI Medway also has a friendship link spanning nearly 40 years with SI Le Quesnoy, which is in the north of France and was chartered on 28 September 1986.<\/p>\n<p>In September 2016, Medway Soroptimists Angela Howe and Jane Barnes drove to Le Quesnoy to attend their 30th Anniversary Weekend Celebrations.\u00a0 They had a great time catching up with some old Soroptimist friends and making new ones.<\/p>\n<p>On 29\/30th August 2026, SI Le Quesnoy will be celebrating their 40th anniversary.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_media_grid element_width=&#8221;3&#8243; gap=&#8221;10&#8243; grid_id=&#8221;vc_gid:1770908009317-45e04586-3de5-10&#8243; include=&#8221;4652,4650,4649,4648,4644,4643,4646,4645&#8243;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h3>Friendship Link Zoom Get Togethers<\/h3>\n<p>On 8 May, Medway and Maidstone Soroptimist , Julia Search hosted a Zoom Get Together with our 4 of our Friendship Link clubs. We were pleased that members from Heswall, Chaguanas, Osnabruck and Voorburg clubs were able to join for part or whole of the meeting.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/files\/2024\/05\/FL-Get-Together-08-05-24.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6617 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/files\/2024\/05\/FL-Get-Together-08-05-24.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"537\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/files\/2024\/05\/FL-Get-Together-08-05-24.jpg 960w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/files\/2024\/05\/FL-Get-Together-08-05-24-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 537px) 100vw, 537px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is always great when we all get together to share what each club is doing to improve the lives of women and girls throughout the world. We heard from SI Voorburg about initial plans to mark \u2018Orange the World\u2019 working with partners, such as with the social sofa project in Europe. \u00a0SI Heswall are busy this year as they celebrate 75 years of service to the community. Whilst our newest Friendship link SI Chaguanas spoke of their work to produce a comic for schools on solar power. Also, in May as Membership month, we heard about those clubs who have successfully recruited new members.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, we reflected on whether there is still value in Friendship Link clubs meeting this way. \u00a0There was unanimous support to continue and so we look forward to the future Get Together&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2025, Julia handed over responsibility to Angela Howe. We have continued to meet on Zoom and our first meeting in 2026 was on\u00a0 3 February with 4 friendship clubs in attendance.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Friendship Link Coordinators Angela Howe is SI Medway and Maidstone&#8217;s friendship link coordinator. She&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":689,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1003","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Friendship Links | SI Medway and Maidstone | SIGBI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SIGBI : SI Medway and Maidstone : Friendship Links : SI Medway and Maidstone is part of a worldwide organisation of women, find more information regarding the Friendship Links here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/medway-maidstone\/friendship-links\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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