On 27th April 2013, SI Middlesbrough hosted a conference for a morning on “Violence against Women and Girls – Everything you should know”.
Speakers included Becky Rogerson for My Sister’s Place (a specialist domestic violence service based locally) who offered an alarming range of statistics: one in four of women suffer from domestic violence in their lifetime. Peter Widlinski from North Eastern Refugee Service aired some of the issues around trafficking in our region and the work of Barnardo’s. Our own SI member Margaret Clark reported on her role as an SIGBI delegate to the United Nations CSW57 Conference on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in New York, March 2013 urging everyone to stop the violence and ‘ACT NOW- the time is right’; also, SI Middlesbrough’s Susan Mansaray spoke movingly with a colleague, Eniola Jaiyeoba, on and against FGM.
Rosy Burgess spoke up for the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) on teen dating and gender prejudices.
Finally, Vera Baird, a barrister, an author and recently appointed Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Northumberland, detailed her role for people in the community and reassured us that neighbouring PCCs would be consulting each other and making concerted efforts to improve their service to the people in a joined-up collaborative way in the North East region.
The conference was attended by guests from as far as Harrogate, Darlington and surrounding areas. Some feedback:
“The conference was excellent, the speakers were superb and we met some lovely people. So, well done SI Middlesbrough for organising the event, and thank you for extending the invitation to Harrogate members.”
“I was enthralled by what you had to say about New York. Looking forward to hearing some more, especially what you think the Agreed Conclusions mean for future Soroptimist work.”
“The morning was very enjoyable and generated potential members. It makes me feel proud to be a Soroptimist, when such careful planning and hard work reaps such satisfactory results” said SI Middlesbrough’s Annabel Young.
