For attendees of the convention in Dublin, in my opinion this was a better, slicker, and in many ways more relevant event. It kept to time and while I’m not a fan of sitting for more than one hour at a time, no session was longer than two hours. Also, the auditorium was smaller and so it was easier to both see and hear the speakers. After the Opening ceremony, we were told that Adam Henson was unable to attend. Shirley and I had noticed a man in jeans and T shirt, who looked a bit scruffy to be honest. It turned out to be Monty Halls, the replacement speaker. What a marvel he turned out to be: a former Marine, now a marine biologist who has featured in a number of TV programmes including ‘Great Barrier Reef’,’ Great Escape’, and ‘My family and the Galapagos’. He was most engaging spoke without notes. He had clearly done his homework on our organisation as he often referred to our objectives and the SDGs. While his talk was uplifting, he also gave serious and disturbing figures: for example, there has been a 2600% increase in sewerage pollution in UK since 2000! On the ‘bright’ side, 98% of people trying to make change are women. There was a lot of food for thought, particularly in relation to ‘Planet’ initiatives. The whole of the conference was recorded, so I hope that at some point it will be on the Hub for everyone to see.
The afternoon session was given over to Membership issues. SIE President Carolien Demey spoke of the way 4 countries in Europe are working with universities to create a support Leadership Academies. (This was a repeat of her talk from the Convention). In the coming year, SIGBI will be looking to trial a similar thing. Dishi then spoke about the Diamond Education Grant. Apparently in the past when money has been given, there have been ‘no strings attached’ in terms of a commitment to give feedback. This is changing, and we heard from some of the recipients. One had been able to ‘turn her life around’ and with assistance from a ‘story teller’ has written a book about her experiences overcoming drug addiction. Another had realised that a career as a para-legal was no for her. This young lady was now a Soroptimist. She had worked to develop a project where recipe cards accompanied food boxes to encourage healthy eating with the ingredients. In Coventry, 60% of those who use foodbanks have at least one person in full time employment.
We then heard about 6 new clubs that had either been chartered this year or were about to be chartered. Each Club talked about how it had come into being.
As there were no motions of urgency, the AGM was a swift affair, lasting only 40 minutes. Items of note were that subs will increase next year, and that membership in 2021 to 22 was down 4%. The ‘extra’ time was given over to discussion/questions about the consultation and what happens next.
430 responses were received. It turns out that individuals, clubs, regions and national associations were able to respond, and it was acknowledged that this wasn’t made clear. A ‘FAQ’ sheet will come out. The date given was w/c 13/11. Regions and National Associations will not be disbanded. There was acknowledgement that some of the terminology was confusing. A revised proposal will be issued in the middle of January, and feedback sought. They clearly think the revised version will be accepted, as the expected timeline is for Resolutions for the AGM to be issued at the end of April. This will comply with AGM regulations. There was a queue at each of the 6 microphones around the hall, but not everyone was able to speak as we had to vacate the building by 5pm.
Saturday morning’s session began with the topic of violence against women and what can be/is being done to try to overcome this. There were 3 speakers.
The first was Louisa Rolfe OBE: Assistant Commissioner for front line policing in the Metropolitan Police Service. The ‘Met’ covers 32 London boroughs. Since 2013 Louisa has led on Response to abuse and domestic violence and has worked closely with college Policing (to train new officers to know how to respond to these incidents), HMI, Home Office and various victim charities and services. She spoke of some changes to legislation. There is now an offence of ‘non-fatal strangulation’. She also spoke of some of the difficulties in addressing cases.7 0% of the police are still white and male. However, there was a quote from Robert Peel which should give us ‘food for thought’: The key to preventing crime is earning public support. Every community member must share the responsibility of preventing crime, as if they were all volunteer members of the force. They will only accept this responsibility if the community supports and trusts the police.
Some additional statistics were also given: innocent until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt; to get to court cases now take 5 times more police work than 10 years ago, and 60% of front-line police have less than 3 years’ experience.
The next speaker was Hasina Safi, civil society and Women’s Rights activist. Originally from Afghanistan, Hasina spoke about the situation there. Prior to the rise of the Taliban violence was the exception not the norm. Hasina Safi was a very vibrant and dynamic speaker. She was a great supporter of education; she believed quality education is the key solution towards the sustainability of a nation with commitments to transfer skills, experience and expertise gained through practice. She also believed in a balanced professional and personal life and is mother of three children. She a member of SI Weybridge & District and said “it is an absolute honour to be a member of my club where each member I have known and talked to is a symbol of solidarity and kindness” She felt that Soroptimist International held the key to change and urged us to continue to use “Our Voice” for the empowerment of women.
The final speaker was Divya Arya who is the BBC Women’s affairs correspondent for BBC World News (Delhi). The theme of her talk was ‘from fear to fightback’. It was disappointing to see that not a lot seems to have changes in 20 years. Harrowing statistics were given: in 95% instances of sexual violence the perpetrators are known to the victim; in 2012 42% of crime was against women, yet in 2021 64% of crime was against women. To try to combat this, the death penalty has been introduced, there has been a ‘widening’ of the definition of sexual assault, and the language to describe it. There are proposals for ‘women only’ police stations, penalties for inefficiency in policing the allegations, and fast track courts for these crimes. There are government campaigns to raise awareness, but Divya acknowledged that the greatest obstacle was that of cultural attitudes, particularly in respect of the caste system. We were told that Nepal is the only country which has a law against marital rape. The key to change in India is to generate a change in the language used to describe the crimes and to raise awareness within the country itself. It’s a very delicate balance between over reporting of crimes, lack of appropriate punishment, and a backlash by parents who overreact and curb the rights and freedoms of their sons. It was felt vitally important to be able to report ‘positive’ outcomes.
After the coffee break there was a Q&A session. The key messages from this were:
Domestic abuse: 90% of abusers are in mixed gender relationships, but it does exist in same sex relationships.
Always maintain hope and pride: nothing is impossible.
Justice is only part of the solution.
We were encouraged to attend/look up the Bystander intervention training.
The session before lunch was about the elimination of Cervical Cancer in Africa. It is both preventable and curable. This initiative is part of the Health4life fund which is the only UN wide fund for mental health and non-communicable diseases. The aim of the project is to deliver the HPV vaccine. SIGBI intend to set up a working party later this year.
Immediately after lunch there was a presentation from Tracey Horner spoke about “LendwithCare”. The aim of this organisation is ‘Make a loan, change a life’. Launched in 2010 it aims to help the 2 billion people in the world who lack access to basic financial services. LwC is part of Care International UK and will lend from £15 upwards. Once this money is paid back then it is possible to ‘re-lend’ it to the same person, or someone else. Examples given were from Zambia for tomato growers, or goat and cattle herds. Over 60% of the entrepreneurs are women. In 2022 there was expansion to new areas: Thailand, Nicaragua, Togo, and includes initiatives such as spice growing. LwC has already lent more than £30k. They are currently working in 14 countries. 47 SI accounts are already members of LwC.
After a brief ‘comfort break’ the PA Awards were announced. Over 1800 PFRFs had to be read and whittled down to 10 across the programmer areas. These PFRFs had been submitted from 181 clubs (we have 290). The Awards were as follows:
SDG 1 and 17: Winner: SI Barnstable and District: Anti-spiking project
Commended: SI Stafford: supporting women in prison
SDG: 16&5: Winner: SI Salisbury: Safer city project
Commended: National Association of Trinidad and Tobago: Imagine Art Competition (originally started by SI Newtown)
Prosperity and SDG4: Winner: SI Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland: Public speaking competition
Commended: SI Barbados: Building capacity for female entrepreneurs:
SDG2: Winner: SI Bombay Chembar: eco empowerment and say no to plastics.
Commended: SI Bingley: Zero Hunger
People SDG3 Health: SI Madurai: Anaemia Awareness
Commended: SI Newtown, Trinidad: Mammogram Campaign.
Delegates award (should have been using a QR code but apparently it would not work): SI Stafford.
Key points: No project is too small.
Challenges: All clubs to write at least 1 PFRF a month
Have ‘top picks every month.
Share the Hub at club meetings.
Add a picture to the PFRF add in SDG17 (partnerships)
Add volunteer hours to PFRFs.
Keep doing what we are doing ‘Loud and Proud’.
We were reminded about the changes to the way in which ‘Best Practice’ will be chosen next year: we have to nominate ourselves.
We were reminded that applications were open to go to the Commission for the status of women.
After a short break for re-organisation of the room, the Change of Insignia ceremonies took place:
International President Maureen to Siew Yong Gnanalingam
Regional and National Association Presidents (me!!)
SIGBI President Cathy Cotteridge to Ruth Healey.
President Ruth then spoke of her vision for her term of office.
She looks forward to seeing us in Edinburgh in 2024, for the 90th Conference.
She left us challenges:
All clubs to have one more member by 4th November 224 than they have on 4th November 2023
All clubs to submit one PFRF a month.
90 activities for our 90th year.
Then there was singing (a young lady with a good voice and songs that were appropriate for our age) and dancing until the close at 7.15pm