Mother & Baby Care in Ghana
Our meeting in October was back at our usual home, the Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner, where we were treated to a fascinating illustrated talk from our member, Fiona Woods entitled ‘Making Every Mother and Baby Count’. Fiona is a retired obstetrics and gynaecology consultant and has spent over 10 years as a volunteer assisting and mentoring projects in Ghana to support women in childbirth.
As one of the team of an international organisation called Kybele, she acts as an adviser in maternal care and safe delivery; giving advice for treatments, training and being involved in introducing referral systems to Regional Hospitals. Kybele is funded by grants from a British Hedge Fund, CIFF (Children’s Investment Foundation Fund). The charity works with local health organisations and the Ghana Health Service to improve services for mothers and their babies. The plan is, that by the time the current funding has worked through, their vision and mission will have been fulfilled and they can withdraw from Ghana, leaving their childbirth healthcare on a professional, firm footing.
Swap-Shop
We also had an accessories ‘swap-shop’. Members brought donations of scarves, bags and jewellery for sale to each other at £1 a piece, the money raised being added to our general charity fund. Leftovers were collected at the end and will be offered for sale at our next Coffee Morning in November.
Easy Fundraising
Members were encouraged again use Easyfundraising when ordering goods and services online. This scheme enables the club to receive donations automatically from participating sellers for our charity funds. We have been linked to Easyfundraising for more than a year, and SIGBI has recently picked up on encouraging clubs to use this as a ‘free’ fundraiser.
EVA Women’s Aid
Judith Clark informed us that the invoice has been received from Marrick Priory for the safety helmets which we agreed to provide, and the balance of the monies from the Tanni Grey-Thompson event have now been used to equip a flat for EVA Women’s Aid. EVA has purchased 7 flats for women and children who have been affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence, and we have agreed to support one of the flats. A list of small items still required was circulated for members to donate if they so wished. SI Scarborough have decided to follow our example and equip another flat.
Orange the World
Members were also reminded to support Orange the World on 25th October. This month’s campaign theme is ‘Spiking’, when someone puts alcohol or drugs into another person’s drink or their body without their knowledge and/or consent. Spiking can be done as a “joke” or it can be done to make it easier for perpetrate crimes such as robbery, assault, rape, or sexual abuse. Drink spiking has increased dramatically in recent years. 15% of women and 7% of men have been spiked with alcohol or drugs. (YouGov poll Nov 2021).
Upcoming fundraising events
Tickets for our Quiz night on Saturday 19th November at The Holiday Inn, Scotch Corner, are now on sale for £12 each, which includes a pie, peas and chips supper. Tombola prize donations will be collected at the November meeting.
We will also be staffing two Coffee Mornings at the Town Hall in November – Saturday 5th and Thursday 24th. Sign up forms were circulated to staff these sessions. Bric-a-brac and books and tombola prize donations will also be collected on the day or at our November meeting.
A team is being assembled to provide “front of house” services to The Station Singers at their Christmas Concert in St Mary’s church. Profits from the concert will go to Colburn Community Support. eTickets will be used for the concert, so an electronic credit/debit card reader will be in use at the concert. The club members discussed the possibility of obtaining our own Card Reader for use by the club for its own events, to save having to handle cash. This will be explored further. We will provide 6 small hampers as prizes for the raffle, and we were asked to bring contributions for these to the November meeting.
Soroptimist Cup
Members Babs Hunt and Margaret Clayson recently represented the club at the annual presentation of the Soroptimist Cup for Making a Difference at Risedale School. The winner, Matilda Melody was given a glowing citation:
“Matilda was an outstanding pupil, who led by example in all she did. Hard-working, conscientious and dedicated to everything she did, she had a positive impact on all around her. Always willing to help, she went above and beyond in all aspects of her school career and was a positive role model to the entire school community. Matilda has a bright future ahead of her, and will no doubt make a positive contribution to society as a whole in her future exploits.” Matilda also collected other awards on the evening – Key Stage 4 Drama and Year 11 – Year Group Awards.