REGIONAL PRESIDENT PAM’S MESSAGE
Good Morning Sister Soroptimists,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at the Regional Council Meeting on Saturday 19 March 2022. There were almost 60 attendees and all clubs in the Region were represented. Following the business meeting, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson had been invited to talk to members as one of my “Extraordinary Women” for all that she had done and is doing. She achieved great success in her Paralympic career as a wheelchair racer. During her career she won 16 medals – 11 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze – held over 30 world records and won the London Marathon 6 times. On retiring from the track she expanded her TV presenting career and took on a number of advisory and consultant roles, for example, locally she has been Chancellor of Northumbria University since July 2015. However she gave a most interesting talk about the active role she plays as a member of the House of Lords. It was clear that the work is very demanding, particularly in the past couple of years due to the pandemic. It involves long hours, often working 78 hours per week and being in the House of Lords until 3 am. Although she has someone who manages her diary, she is without secretarial support so writes letters and responds to all her emails and when preparing for debate undertakes her own research. Current interests are the British Sign Language Bill, as mentioned in my next paragraph, the Building Safety Bill after the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the Health and Care Bill and the Domestic Abuse Bill. Despite being time consuming and emotionally demanding, Baroness Grey-Thompson is a highly committed member of the House of Lords.
I had another opportunity to hear Baroness Tanni talk again when I was also invited, with a plus one, to an event being held by S.I. Richmond and Dales at Scotch Corner on Thursday 24 March. After a meal, she was to talk about her work in the House of Lords. Although she had spoken at our Regional Council Meeting a few days beforehand I was looking forward to hearing her again. However, she was due to speak the next day during a debate of the British Sign Language Bill so timing was changed to enable her to talk first and then leave at 8.0pm to catch a train for London. Although we le‘ Morpeth in plenty of time to be there by 6.0pm and despite the road works my excellent chauffeur, Patricia Gatherum, was making good time until we came to a standstill a few miles before the end of our journey! Unfortunately there had been a serious accident involving an articulated lorry which had jack knifed and 2 or 3 cars at the Scotch Corner junction. This meant that we arrived at the hotel as the vote of thanks was being given and just before Baroness Tanni le‘ to catch her train. However, we were delighted to see there was an excellent turn out for the event so we were pleased to meet some of the Soroptimists from other clubs and we enjoyed our meal. Fortunately our journey home was less eventful !
It was lovely to see Baroness Tanni again at the Thanksgiving Service in memory of HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday. Not only was she a member of the congregation but she was interviewed beforehand to talk about Prince Phillip. The service was quite different from the funeral with many more members of the family able to attend and the red, white and blue flowers in the Abbey were magnificent. A large part of the service focused on young people. One young woman, Doyin Sonibare, who had completed the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme at Gold level stated it had enabled her to achieve her degree and find employment. She is now studying for a PhD in Sicklecell and Health Inequalities. Doyin admired Prince Phillip’s vision for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme whose aim is to support the development of young people all over the world by empowering them to reach their full potential.
Although the Ukraine situation is still ongoing there is hope that the face to face Peace talks taking place in Turkey are making slight progress however much depends on the extent that Putin is prepared to give and whether he will agrees to the demands of the Ukrainian President Zelensky. Whilst it seemed that the Russian forces were going to scale back their operations in Kyiv and the northern part of the country there are few signs that this is actually happening.
Many people in the UK and elsewhere are opening up their homes to refugees most with the best of intentions, but not all. Refugees were often exploited in the early days by criminal gangs and individuals involved in sex and organ trafficking and slave labour. The refugees, mostly women and children, are forced to put their trust in strangers but are not necessarily safe. They provide ideal targets and opportunities for human traffickers hence the reason why screening is important to protect refugees. Fake volunteers have even been found at Refugee Centres. Fortunately support agencies and police have become aware of these illegal practices and registration processes improved to provide greater protection for refugees.
On a positive note, at the recent World Skating Championships in Montpelier, Ukrainian skaters, Oleksandra Nazorova and Maksym Nikitin, completed an emotional performance in Ice Dancing. They were wearing costumes in their country’s colours and after their performance received a long standing ovation as did others from the Ukrainian skating team.
Claire Clancy, from Canning Street Primary School in the West End of Newcastle gave a most interesting talk at S.I. Newcastle upon Tyne’s last meeting about developing a Forest School. Our club has been involved in helping their development as a Programme Action project. The school caters for children from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds so Claire stressed that the Forest School helps to improve the children’s communication and language skills. She also highlighted one of the key aims as promoting the holistic development of all involved, fostering resilient, confident, independent and creative learners. Her talk finished with the following quote :
“We can only see a short distance ahead but we can see PLENTY there that needs to be done” – Alan Turing
DATE FOR YOR DIARIES :
Regional President Pam’s Event on Saturday 25th June at the Auctioneer, Carlisle – the first opportunity to meet face to face since the start of lock down in March 2020. There will be plenty of time to chat with “old” friends, hear from “Exceptional Women” who have set up their own businesses and enjoy a buffet lunch. All clubs will receive more details shortly. Take care and look after yourselves – Best wishes – Regional President Pam
EDITOR :
Thank you President Pam for this edition’s Message. There clearly has been much happening in the past two weeks and many of us were pleased to have joined you at these well supported events.
Newsletter
We start this Newsletter with a great photograph from S.I. Penrith and District who have sent in this picture of their members celebrating International Women’s Day. They have been busy with club projects within their community and reports will be in the next Newsletter.
S.I.Cockermouth and District have been supporting “Women Out West’s” International Women’s Day fund raiser as can be seen from this report :
“ On Thursday 10th March, 10 members from S.I. Cockermouth and District attended Women Out West’s International Women’s Day and raising event, “Tackling the Taboo”.
“Women Out West” (WoW ) provides services designed BY West Cumbrian Women FOR West Cumbrian Women – to empower all women to reach their potential.
During the evening ( and while we tucked into Afternoon Tea and Calderwood House coffee) we heard talks from four truly inspirational women. Just ordinary women who told their stories from the heart. We heard about homelessness, teenage suicide, living with HIV and domestic abuse.
If I’m honest I wasn’t looking forward to the evening and found it a contradiction that we were listening to such tough subjects whilst enjoying afternoon tea. In the event it proved to be a very educational and motivational experience. Each of the speakers spoke for about 30 minutes with passion, inspiration and humour bringing their stories to life. At times you couldn’t hear a pin drop !
The event was sponsored by Sellafield and was a sell out with around 200 people in attendance. “
S.I.Middlesbrough have wrtten in with their reactions to the Ukraine crisis and reminding us what we can do to support refugees.
“We were all so shocked at the images of unspeakable suffering emerging from Ukraine, and like many clubs, members of S.I. Middlesbrough responded. A cash donation went to the Disaster Fund and one of our prolific kntters, Shirley Bond, set to work making warm hats for children fleeing the devastation caused by relentless bombing. ( see photograph below ) Others have donated clothing and medical supplies to local contacts.
Our members, who have lobbied local Members of Parliament over the Nationality and Borders Bill, have continued to express concern at the plans in the legislation. The proposals will create a two tier system where claimants will be treated differently according to how they arrive in the U.K. Many, whose desperation to escape war and persecution drives them to use the services of unscrupulous agents, will be criminalised. Their claims will be treated as ‘inadmissible ‘ and some will have their claims processed in offshore centres.
We feel that the Bill does not reflect the hugely supportive humanitarian response to the crisis in Ukraine. The images we have seen show how people can be displaced with no warning, no time to plan, and no opportunity to gather their belongings or the crucial documents that may be necessary to demonstrate their future need for protection.
The plight of the Ukrainians has illustrated the failures of the UK system ad why we need to oppose the Bill.
The House of Lords have identified many injustices within the Bill and have passed a number of amendments to mitigate the effects of the proposals. Some of the Bishops were particularly critical of the likely affects on children, pointing out that their needs had been unaddressed in many areas of the Bill. a UNHCR representative has stated that the measures in the Bill will cause suffering to refugees and undermine the global protection agreements.
We hope that kindness and compassion will eventually overcome hostility. “
S.I. Darlington & District report that their member Elspeth Robinson has returned safely from her trip to Uganda and to the Kumi Foundation – her first since the beginning of 2020. During one of the weeks she was there she worked with ‘Wheels for the World’ team to distribute 119 wheelchairs plus mobility aids, and has many photos which illustrate the enormous difference they are for their recipients.
For example : Paul, a 13 year old boy, who was the most physically disabled client the team had seen with a severely deformed body shape. He is very bright, speaks good English and needed a chair so he could get to school by himself as his friends have been carrying him there every day ! The team worked at both adapting a chair to help him improve his posture – as well as working to improve his sleeping position to correct the destructive influences of gravity on his frail body. Having a wheelchair gives this young man confidence and independence for the first time.
Photograph below showing Paul BEFORE his new found freedom :
– and then his much improved life and mobility : ( see photograph below )
Looking out at the sleet falling here in Darlington today, it is hard to imagine the heat and dust experienced by Elspeth in Kumi, although her descriptions are very vivd. The wind raised a wall of dust and litter – on one occasion causing her some eye damage. Riding pillion on a motorbike, our intrepid Elspeth had to cover her head and face completely to protect herself from the dust, but this meant she couldn’t anticipate the potholes and corners on the tracks through the bush. Nevertheless, she finds it all “so exciting” !
Elspeth has since heard that rain arrived on March 27th so everyone was out with the oxen ploughing the fields and planting seeds for crops such as groundnuts, millet, maize …… with rice to follow. There are two crops per year and the last one failed, so the people are hungry. When the rain comes, women walk out holding mugs to catch the precious water. There is no river and it’s a long walk to the borehole.
The greatest joy for Elspeth this trip was the fact that she was accompanied by her two grandsons, Sam ( 22 ) and Ben (19). At first they found it hard to approach people with such severe disabilities, but it didn’t take long for them to see the person within. Sam acted as official photographer for the ‘Wheels’ team, taking the before and after photos of ‘clients’ whose lives were being transformed. Ben is going to study medicine and he knows that what he saw in Kumi Hospital will give him a head start over all the other students.
It is a completely different world out there and Elspeth thinks that their world is more sensible than ours. She amazes people by telling them, for example, about how we in England have pet dogs that we give presents to – and even dress up ! Much more information about Elspeth’s Foundation can be found at : www.kumicommunityfounda&on.co.uk and you can follow the work on Facebook.
EDITOR : You may remember an Appeal for another African project with close links to the UK – the Kori Women’s Development Project which is an NGO in Moyamba District of Sierra Leone. Following the sad and sudden passing of Federation President Johanna Raffan M.B.E., her club, S.I. Thames Valley, set up an Appeal to plant a Memorial Orchard for Johanna on donated land at the Kori project, where she had taken a great interest in their work and visited several times. The cost was estimated to be £5,000 and it would be tended by local young people as part of their education and would produce edible fruit to support a healthy diet. I am pleased to report that I have heard that the target sum of £5,000 was raised and that the project has progressed very successfully.
Thank you to all clubs and members in SINE who responded to this appeal. www.koridp.org
Finally – I would like to offer our congratulations to one of our members who has recently been in the Press for very good reasons !
On Monday 21st March, at the Northern Power Women’s Awards ceremony in Manchester our member Mandy Coppin of S.I. Newcastle upon Tyne was shortlisted for the work of ‘STREETWISE’ in standing up to youth service cuts and has worked tirelessly to put young people in the Region first. Well done Mandy for gaining this recognition of your hard work.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY :
Next Saturday 9th April is the next Regional Coffee Gathering – on Zoom. If you would like to join this very informal and friendly session from 10.30 to 11.30am then please do request a link to be sent to you from Margaret Ayton ( margaretayton40@gmail.com )
– and don’t forget to put the date of Saturday 25th June in your diary for the Regional President’s Event. More information and booking form to follow via President Pam.
This past year seems to have flown by as I remember that I took over the role of Editor of this Regional Newsletter one year ago. Joyce Chesney had started this system of communication with her informative e-mails and we have gone from strength to strength in sharing projects and news between clubs and members. Joyce led the way in ‘breaking the ice’ and introducing us to so many different ways of working that seemed quite daunting and foreign at that time. How life has changed in just 2 years ! There are many good things that have come out of the pandemic and one is the review of how we keep in touch and ensure all members share our news and ideas – as well as becoming much more adept at using new technology.
Keep the news coming please – the next edition of this Newsletter will be on Easter Sunday 17 April. All reports and photographs are very welcome but please remember to send your text and photographs ( jpegs) separately to me. Enjoy your Easter Eggs!
In friendship, your Editor and JIPP
Christine
Christine Lumsdon email: christinemlumsdon@gmail.com