Poole Soroptimists had an eventful run-up to Christmas! Members delivered food parcels as part of the town’s Christmas Parcels event which supports some of the most vulnerable in our local community. We supported local charity LEAF, Leukaemia Educating And Fund-Raising, at their Christmas coffee morning. Poole Soroptimists took along their lovely full LEAF money pigs for emptying. LEAF supports local families in need of support due to a family member having leukaemia. The Broadstone Community Concert Band played an amazing Christmas concert at Wimborne Minster on 9th December. The Minster was packed and the band played a great array of Christmas music and carols. Poole Soroptimists were on hand to greet guests and give information on the Purple Teardrop Campaign, our charity that raises awareness of human trafficking, particularly into the sex industry, and raises funds that help rescued victims recover. Our sincere thanks to

  Poole Coffee Morning on 22nd July raised funds for Purple Teardrop Campaign’s project that sends preloved bras to Free the Girls, a charity that supports women survivors of trafficking by setting them in business selling bras. Poole Soroptimists and friends enjoyed delicious cakes and coffee, plus added monies came from a super tombola. Supporting survivors of modern slavery is a key element of the Purple Teardrop Campaign’s work.  

  As part of the lead in to International Women’s Day, on Saturday 4 March, women from across Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset and Surrey gathered at the University of Winchester to learn from a line-up of speakers about how the lives of women and girls are being transformed locally, nationally and internationally. The event was opened by University Vice-Chancellor Professor Joy Carter, who told delegates how the University’s precursor institution was established to train teachers to teach the poor and that Winchester was the location of the first school for poor girls, in the building that is now The Bell public house in Cross Road. Although Winchester was one of the last Universities to admit women, Professor Carter made the point that the University had now compensated and the student body was now 70% female.   Caroline Dinenage MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women,

Our twin club in Germany, SI Hagen, has very generously and kindly been ‘Knitting for Nepal.’ What a wonderful surprise for our Programme Action Officer to have been sent a box of blankets, baby vests and bootees for onward transmission to our Nepalese twin club, SI Kathmandu. The Soroptimist International network of women across all continents is indeed strong and committed and working together we can achieve much. Thank you SI Hagen members – your wonderful knitting will go a long way towards helping new mothers keep their babies warm in Nepal.

It was a huge pleasure and honour for President Liz Rodgers to meet up with Plymouth Soroptimists as the two clubs prepare to formalise their friendship link in 2017. The members of both clubs are looking forward to forging close ties, particularly by providing support for each other’s projects as well as enjoying some social time to share ideas.

Poole Soroptimists in partnership with Poole Bay Rotary raised over £300 thanks to the generous residents of Creekmoor who donated so readily when the Christmas Train visited prior to Christmas. The proceeds from the evening are for Dorset’s latest refuge which provides support to the victims of domestic abuse.  

Since April 2016 Poole Soroptimists have distributed 435 baby hats, 47 blankets, 71 hat & pullover sets, 13 pullovers and 19 pairs of bootees. The majority of knitted items have Nepal as an end destination though some have gone to the Calais Jungle and others are destined for Sierra Leone. Photo’d here are Gill and Peggy, SI Thames Valley, Gill, plus Sue and Liz, SI Poole.The five met up in Swanage when Poole’s Programme Action Officer Sue Fortescue presented a selection of baby clothes and blankets to Thames Valley Soroptimists for onward despatch to the Kori Project in Sierra Leone where they will be given to mothers for their newborns.