Regional President Pam’s Message :
“Good Morning Sister Soroptimists,
I am looking forward to reading in the Newsletter what you all did to commemorate INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY . In the evening of that day I celebrated the occasion with sister Soroptimists at the West End Women and Girl’s Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, where a big party was held for the community in Elswick. It was wonderful to see so many people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. The party was being held to launch the 40 Women and Girls book to represent the Centre’s 40th anniversary. There was a superb exhibition of the photographs of the women and girls with captions as well as projections on the outside of the building. Fairground attractions on the green opposite the Centre had a ‘galloping horse’ carousel, a Helter Skelter and Shuggy Boats which all provided entertainment for the children and some adults re-living their younger days ! Tasty food made at the Centre added to the enjoyment of the event with a firework display bringing the evening to its conclusion. We were lucky that the weather stayed fair and was not too cold.
Sadly the situation in Ukraine has not improved. The number of refugees fleeing their country has now risen to 3 million and more people have been killed and homes destroyed. The constant bombing in the cities and towns means that those people still living there are in constant fear. The response to provide aid and support to Ukraine and the surrounding countries giving refuge has been tremendous. Perhaps you have been involved in your own communities to help the requests for assistance? I know in Morpeth there was a street collection last Saturday which raised over £11,000. Initially the collectors thought their cans weren’t doing very well as they didn’t make much noise until they realised that most of the money given were notes ! The Town Hall was also used as a collection point for clothes, nappies and toiletries to be picked up by the Polish Centre in Newcastle for transporting to Poland and distributing to Ukrainian refugees.
Thank you to Cris Young for forwarding this evocative photograph of a line up of donated baby buggies waiting at a railway station in Poland for newly arriving refugee mothers with young children )
A positive example of another extraordinary women came out of Ukraine this week when Marina Ovsyannikova, a Russian journalist, came out on prime-time Russian TV News to denounce the war in Ukraine. After 14 hours of interrogation she was fined and released but may yet face several years in jail. There must be many examples of courageous actions in Ukraine such as the 9 year old girl, Sasha, who had to have her arm amputated after being shot by Russian forces and she said “I hope they didn’t mean to hurt me”.
Unfortunately I didn’t see much of the Winter Paralympics as I had hoped, however what I saw was very impressive. Known as an international winter multi-sport event it involved 6 Parasports : Alpine skiing , biathlon, cross country skiing, sled hockey, snowboarding and wheelchair curling. It was amazing watching the visually impaired skiers doing slalom skiing, following their guides at speed and weaving between the poles. In fact, I saw one slalom skier who was blind and had to follow sound from their guide. As well as the slalom skiing I did see some seated skiing, hockey and curling. These athletes’ achievements were to be admired.
GB’s Paralympians succeeded in winning six medals including a gold medal by Andrew and Neil Simpson. Although the women didn’t win a gold medal Menna Fitzpatrick, GB’s most successful paralympian won a silver and bronze medal and Millie Knight achieved a bronze medal for downhill skiing. However the greatest success must go to the Ukrainian athletes who, despite getting to the games and dealing with uncertainties at home, came second in the medal table with 29 medals including 11 gold.
Another positive and welcome piece of news this week was the release of Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe who had been detained in Iran since 2016 accused of plotting to overthrow the Government. On arriving back home she was able to be reunited with her husband and daughter now aged 7 years.
By the time you receive this Newsletter we will have held our virtual Regional Council meeting on Saturday 19th March and listened to Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, another of our Extraordinary Women, who I’m looking forward to hearing. “
Take care and look after yourselves
Best wishes
President Pam
Editor : Thank you Pam for these messages and thoughts. I look forward to receiving more club reports on your activities for International Women’s Day – but here are two that I have received.
Newsletter
From S.I. Middlesborough :
Members of S.I. Middlesbrough came together recently to celebrate International Women’s Day. Over the past year, SIM has been involved in the planning of a series of interviews by journalist Jan Hunter which appeared in the Darlington and Stockton Times. The series showcased the lives and experiences of local women. We were delighted that several of the featured women were able to join us on the night, and we also welcomed our sister Soroptimists from SI Stockton-on-Tees. Our guest speaker for the event was Hannah Chapman. Hannah is the first female Editor of the Darlington & Stockton Times and gave an interesting insight into the challenges of the role.
Fairtrade Fortnight and the theme “Chose the World you want” has just finished. Jenny Medhurst, our local Fairtrade Agent had bought a stall so that we could buy Fairtrade products and generate some urgently needed income for farmers ( many of them women ) whose livelihoods are affected by the fall in sales due to the pandemic and the threat of climate change. Jenny told us some stories from those communities – some concerning, others heart-warming.
The evening finished with tea and cake – and we thank all those who supported the event in whatever way ! “
A photograph ( below ) of the Guest Speaker Hannah Chapman with SIM President Geraldine.
S.I. Newcastle upon Tyne club celebrated and commemorated International Women’s Day with different activities.
They worked in partnership with a West End School to learn about International Women’s Day and asked the Year 6 pupils to produce a piece of work reflecting the day. The staff were impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the pupils, they researched both on line and from reference books. They submitted their work to be judged by their teachers.
On March 8th President Christine Tomkins returned to the school for a special award ceremony. Each pupil received a certificate and four were selected to receive a book prize.
One pupil produced an acoustic about Greta Thunberg.
Another produced short biographies of inspirational women.
A poster featuring Laxmi Agarwal who was attacked with acid was very powerful.
Finally a poster reflected the message of International Women’s Day.
All the pupils shared some Celebration Chocolates.
President Christine reports that the two afternoons spent with the 60 pupils and their teachers was an absolute joy. It was very special to spend time with such positive and engaged pupils and such enthusiastic teachers.
This photograph above shows some of the engaged pupils with their certificates.
All school photographs with the permission of Ellie Wilson, Assistant Headteacher.
And the photograph is of the poster reflecting the message of the survivor of an acid attack.
One of the poems submitted is also worth reading and is included below : INTERNATIONAL WOMANS DAY POEM : by Mesia
International Women’s Day,
The day when women spoke up to say,
“Why are we so pushed away, if we could work together everyday?”
Think of what we could do, If you let us help too !
We hope you realise we’re just like you, Humans who have rights too !
We hope that it comes to light, that it is wrong for us to fight, To protest day and night,
Just for us to sew, draw or write ?
Regional President Pam has already reported on the festive visit for the West End Women and Girls Centre where Newcastle members enjoyed all the fun of the fair with the tasty snacks and celebrated the remarkable 40 years of service that this Centre has given the women and girls of Elswick. Some other of our members supported the comedy evening ( “Tyne to Stand up !” ) at the Tyne Theatre and Opera House where a Gala evening of comedy with the North East’s best women stand up comedians entertained a large audience in aid of Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland . A wonderful way to commemorate International Women’s Day. “
Editor:
I hope that some of you will be able to join us at the next virtual Regional Coffee Gathering which will be on Saturday 9th April from 10.30am for an hour . Please contact Margaret Ayton for the Zoom link to join us ( margaretayton40@gmail.com ) This is a week later due to the SIGBI Membership Webinar taking place the previous Saturday 2 April. I hope that all the clubs Membership Officers ( and/or the incoming ones as well ) will be signing up for this as increasing and retaining our membership is a key objective for this coming year.
I hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather in your gardens and the results of your autumnal bulb planting some months ago. Who would have known that our Soroptimist colours of blue and yellow would be so prominent everywhere in these recent weeks. Each time that I look out of my kitchen window I can see my favourite blue bowl filled with yellow mini-daffodils ( see above photograph ) and think of the members of the five Soroptimist Clubs in the Ukraine and wonder how they are all surviving – as well as the enormous organisation of relief for the refugees in the adjacent Europe countries where Soroptimism flourishes.
My quote for this Newsletter comes from Eleanor Roosevelt and was seen prominently displayed at the IWD festivities at the West End Women and Girls Centre. It seems to be very appropriate for these troubled times :
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin ? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.
Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. “
Please do send me your club and member news for the next Regional Newsletter which will be on Sunday 3 April when we will be into summertime and more day light hours.
in friendship
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- your editor and JIPP – Christine email: christinemlumsdon@gmail.com