8th June 2013:  Regional President Patricia Gatherum invited all fourteen clubs in our area – Northern England – to attend a meeting and devote the afternoon to reviewing the voluntary work and projects we have been tackling as Soroptimists throughout the past 50 years or so. Regional meetings are scheduled quarterly and these are one of the main ways of showcasing our campaigns, which we Soroptimists call ‘Programme Action’. Club members may choose to attend these or not. There were eight members attending from SI Middlesbrough on this occasion. We looked back to the sixties and then advanced to current times and even ventured to speculate about what might be ahead, in the future.  In addition to the philanthropic Programme Action, we had a bit of fun, dressing up in the fashions we wore then too.     The picture shown above depicts Uzma and Hema

Middlesbrough Soroptimists meet to consider the SIGBI and Prison Reform Trust report and project to campaign for lower female imprisonment in the UK; supported by a complimentary talk from guest speaker Sara Mirsalehi (first on the right in the following picture) who is a member of the Drugs & Alcohol Recovery Team (DART) at Holme House Prison, Stockton, currently.

Pam Cooper, an SI Middlesbrough’s Secretary, is hosting two-course lunch on Saturday 1 June 2013 for current and prospective members. This will be a social event. Any voluntary donations will go to SI Middlesbrough funds. Vegetarian food will be included as well.

SI Middlesbrough is having a meeting on Thursday 16 May at 7:00 p.m. at Bridgeway, Allendale Road, Ormesby, TS7 9LF where there will be a talk on the subject of women’s imprisonment. The speaker is Helen Attwell and there will be a short DVD.

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

SI Middlesbrough is hosting a free conference on Violence against Women at The Trinity Centre, North Ormesby, on Saturday 27th April from 9:00 a.m. – 12.30 p.m. Topics covered include Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence. All with an interest in these topics are welcome to attend. To book, or for further information, contact Geraldine Nuttall on geraldine.n@ntlworld.com.

Tuesday 2nd April, Easter Tuesday, is the date of a major fundraising event for Barbardo’s North East and to help defray some of the expenses incurred by two of our members attending the UN Convention on the Status of Women in New York recently. The 2013 Grand Ol’Oprey of Cleveland will host country music performers such as Kelly’s Country and AC/KC. Tickets (£8) can be purchased at the door, and there will be a raffle of donated bottles. Doors open 6.45pm, curtain up, 7.30pm. The venue is Saltburn Community & Arts Theatre. Do join us for an evening of fun and good music!

Here is some information about our recent and planned activities. Over the last year or so we have been raising awareness of Female Genital Mutilation, a barbaric practice that occurs in several countries across the world and that also affects some young girls from our own country who are taken back to their country of origin to have this practice carried out, often in unhygienic circumstances and without anaesthetic. Two of our members have addressed other clubs on this issue. In 2013 we plan to hold a local conference on FGM and other forms of violence against women.   We provide ongoing support in a variety of forms to Justice First, a local organisation (www.justicefirst.org.uk) that supports asylum seekers, many of whom have fled from torture and the threat of imprisonment or death from a regime that they oppose in their country of origin. Amongst

A warm welcome to Shuntaz, who joined us in January. Shuntaz is a retail manager by profession. She has many skills to bring us and develop, not least creative writing!

Two of our members, Margaret Clark and Wendy Shepherd, represented Soroptimist International at the UN Commission on the Status of Women convention in New York in March. What an honour for them and the club!