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Annual Vigil at MK Rose – End Violence Against Women and Girls

Annual Vigil at MK Rose – End Violence Against Women and Girls

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The United Nations General Assembly has designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.  25 November is a focus for preventative programmes, such as the UN Women’s 16 Days of Activism and the White Ribbon UK ambassador programme for men and boys. Here in Milton Keynes, as part of the 16 Days of activism programme, an Annual Vigil is held at MK Rose.  Established in 2020 the annual vigil enables Milton Keynes’ citizens to mark their alliance with women and girls in our city and around the world, all of whom deserve to live free from violence.  The vigil resonates with people from all backgrounds, regardless of ethnicity, gender identity, age, religion, ability, or sexual orientation. The gathering is symbolic of the partnership taking action to end violence against women in Milton Keynes. Partners include the local authority, police, health services, parishes, voluntary sector and civil society organisations,

SI MiltonKeynes Sumer Branch mtg Aug 2024
Summer Branch meeting all in Pink

Summer Branch meeting all in Pink

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This month we held our sumer branch meeting, which is a more casual occasion of a picnic round one of our members house and we have a theme.  For 2024 it was Pink.  Pink relates to peace, friendship, nurturing, healthy to name a few.  All sentiments Soroptimists take to heart. For the evning our members dressed up in Pink, provided a picnic with a pink theme and of course we had pink drinks. At our July meeting our new member Scottie gave us a faboulous presentation about the fundraising  and volunteering she does for the Anlung Pi Free school in Cambodia. Anlung Pi free school was begun to help children who live on the largest dump in Cambodia.  It provides free learning in Khmer, English and simple maths. The school was thriving with over 300 pupils until Covid meant no travelling or mixing with others.

Miltin Keynes Musica Charity Choir event 14 Dec 2024

Miltin Keynes Musica Charity Choir event 14 Dec 2024

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Save the Date Soroptimist International Milton  Keynes  will be presenting an evening of musical entertainment with the fantastic MK Musica Charity Choir on Saturday 14 December, 7.00pm at The Mead Center, 67a High Stret, Newport Pagnell, MK16 8AB Tickets are £12.50 per person All funds raised from ticket sales will go towards our charities and charity projects: MK Act Womens Refuge; YMCA MK: Ukraine Appeal MK: Works For Us: Unity MK. There will be refreshments, a raffle, a silent auction for a home made quilt and a craft stall for those hand made xmas presents To order a ticket contact us on soroptimistsmk@gmail.com Please share this and come along, we look forward to seeing you and having a fantastic evening of music and sing along

Plastic Free July

Plastic Free July

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Plastic Free July is an annual initiative which provides resources and ideas to help you reduce single use plastic and help save our planet. About the challenge – Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help you (and millions of others around the world) reduce single-use plastic waste.  Do you want help to start living plastic free or just create new habits and use less? Join millions worldwide in the Plastic Free July challenge today! Click here to go to the Plastic Free July website where you can learn more and sign up to the challenge. Members of Soroptimist International Milton Keynes have renewed their Green Pledges to support this initiative.  Here is what we are doing in 2024: Never buy plastic bags – use for life bags or natural fiber lifetime bags or make own out of recycled materials. Walk to the local

June 2024 update

June 2024 update

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What have we been doing these last 3 months.                                Our “90 challenges”, celebrating SIGBI’s 90 years this year as a Federation are going well.  We have already achieved 5 challenges, which impressed the Regional Conference we hosted in June.  A little more about that later. At the end of March we donated 90 new and slightly used bras to Smalls for Us.  A UK charity that collects underwear for people in Africa and the UK who can’t afford or can’t get any.  Because Dignity matters. The  second  90  challenge  was  taking  part  in  MK Foodbank’s MK Logo challenge for Easter.  They asked communities, schools, groups and businesses if they could make up their logo or an easter picture in food items.  We made up our logo with just over 90 items of food as well as donating over 100

Afternoon Tea 6 March celebrating International Women’s Day

Afternoon Tea 6 March celebrating International Women’s Day

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This year the Unite Nations theme for International Women’s Day is “Invest in Women”.  In a world facing multiple crises that are putting immense pressure on communities, achieving gender equality is more vital than ever. Ensuring women’s and girls’ rights across all aspects of life is the only way to secure prosperous and just economies, and a healthy planet for future generations. Again this year we are holding our Afternoon Tea event, Wednesday 6 March 3.30pm at MK Snap.  We are delighted to have Louisa Hobbs, Operations Manager as out speaker.  She will be talking to us about achieving a workd record and feeding thousands in our comunity. We would love to have our company.  Come and enjoy afternoon tea and at the same time your ticket donations will raise vital funds for the charities we support who are: MK Act – Women’s Refuge YMCA

October update on what we have been upto

October update on what we have been upto

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And what have we been up to lately August started with a delivery to MK Act of a full car load of bed linen, towels, glasses, crockery, cutlery and other small kitchen goods and bedding goods for those families moving out of MK Act.  We wish them all the very best in their new lives.      On the 19 August we had our wonderful annual Fish and Quiz evening at Simpson Church, courtesy of Miss Quiz. It was a sellout evening, all raffles won. The Fish and Chips were delicious, would recommend and our tables of quizzers did very well (we were up against some demon quizzers), but it was all good fun. The evening raised over £500 and we have already donated £400 to MK Act towards their summer activities fund to pay summer activities for the children and families in their care

MK Foodbank MK Can New World Record

MK Foodbank MK Can New World Record

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Soroptimists in Milton Keynes may be a small club, but we are always keen to help our community and so back in July, when we heard about MK Foodbank’s plans for the MK Can event to break the Guinness World Record for the number of tinned food cans in a continous line, we thought could we do this. All our tins dropped off and ready to be taken round to our section, 11 crates with 42 tins in each. The outline of the record attempt was that on Monday 16 October (World Food Day) MK Foodbank along with businesses, clubs, churches, schools, parish councils, organisations and charities throughout Milton Keynes would attempt to break the world record for the number of tin cans in a continuous line.  The record was made in 2014 in Canada and stood at 44,966.  MKFoodbank wanted to aim for 10km

Heart and Music Event

Heart and Music Event

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On the 14 October 2023 at the Mead Centre in Newport Pagnell we held our 3rd Charity fundraising Music event and they just keep on getting better. This year we were delighted to welcome the Heart and Music Choir who performed a varied and upbeat programme of songs to keep your toes tapping and putting you in a very good mood for the rest of the evening.  We had songs from Ruby Tuesday, I won’t send you Roses to Spirit of the Earth and Climb every mountain.  The singers really sung with such joy and enthusiam you could see the audience all smiling. The Heart and Music singers were formed in July 2010 to sing concerts (click here to view their website)  to raise funds for good causes.  Their first performance was at All Saints Church in Loughton in Sept 2010 to help raise funds

Viva Violet Awards 2023 – Women of Action

Viva Violet Awards 2023 – Women of Action

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Violet Richardson was the original founder of Soroptimist International, her motto was It’s what you do that counts and therefore, hence the name Violet Awards for “Women of Action”. On Friday 20 October, the current generation of members here in MK gathered at MK SNAP for their second Violet Awards evening, where local women were recognised for their unsung efforts in going above and beyond their normal roles in helping other women and girls calling upon the services of our charities and to help these women achieve their potential. SI:MK fundraises all year to help our chosen charities and community groups meet small gaps in provision for their clients. Currently we are supporting MK Act, MK YMCA, UnityMK (formerly Winter Night Shelter MK), Ukraine Appeal and Works for Us (now part of Citizens Advice MK). The awards were very kindly sponsored by Jan Flawn CBE