Here is our monthly update from our May meeting. We were very pleased to welcome visitors from two other SI Yorkshire Clubs – Regional Membership Officer Judith Parsons, and long standing stalwart of the Region, Pat Kilbane – and another prospective new member of our club. Judith and Pat congratulated the Club on its good record of recruiting new people. Judith spoke about the need to continue to bring new members into Soroptimism. This is designated “Membership Month”, but Judith says that every month should be membership month.
EVA Women’s Aid
The Speaker for the meeting was another SI member – Richinda Taylor of SI Scarborough, Malton & District. Richinda was speaking in her capacity as CEO of the Charity EVA. She began her talk by reminding us of the vision of EVA, which is to end violence towards women and girls. The ethos of EVA was to create ‘women only’, safe places for women who had suffered violence and domestic abuse, and to support them. It is a chilling statistic that 3 women each week are killed by men.
She went on to update the club on progress made on the new purpose built flats in Scarborough, one of which had been equipped using donations from SI Richmond & Dales. Richinda is determined to create safe spaces for those older women, who perhaps had suffered many years of domestic abuse or coercive control, and wanted to break free from the cycle of violence. This age group of women need specific care and skills to enable them to survive of their own. In a mixed group with younger women, the older women can be drawn into supporting the younger ones, who may see them as mother figures, rather than being able to concentre on their own recovery.
Richinda devised a campaign to educate society in general that there is no age limit to domestic abuse. This was known as the ‘45+ Project’. A number of older women felt empowered to break away from their abuser and come forward for help after this campaign. Richinda organised specific funding for the building of 7 purpose built flats in Scarborough, especially for these women. An outstanding achievement, and she tells us this is only the first! Richinda works with 17 funding providers, as EVA is not funded by the local authority. This is a full time job in itself, managing the grants and funding, and reporting back.
EVA also provides education programmes (often devised by the women themselves) which inform women of their rights, and educates them in many areas, including how to avoid abusive relationships in the future. The club members were greatly impressed with Richinda’s passion and commitment, and we are delighted delighted to have been able to support such a fantastic organisation.
Richinda kindly gave us all an EVA ‘goody bag’ to either hand to a woman in need, or to leave in a Doctor’s waiting room. In return we presented her with a car boot load of items for her to take back to the flats – including duvets, bedding, towels etc. Richinda thanked us most profusely for all our support.
PRESIDENT’S ACTIVITIES
Our new Club President, Babs Hunt, Babs has had a very busy start to her Presidency. She has represented the club at the Richmond Mayor’s Charity Dinner; SI Selby Luncheon; Incoming Regional Presidents’ Lunch and the Yorkshire Friendship day at Newby Hall. She will be attending the Richmond Mayor Making Ceremony next week, when Ian Woods (husband of our member Fiona Woods) will become Richmond Mayor. Representing the club at local events is a valuable way of raising awareness of Soroptimism, and highlighting what we stand for.
ORANGE CAFE
Another SIGBI initiative was discussed at the meeting, following on from our participation last year in highlighting the UNESCO “Orange The World” campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls. The plan is to integrate this with a social gathering for club members. On the 25th of each month – Orange The World Day – we will gather at a local cafe to have a coffee, wearing our Orange badges, and Soroptimist Blue clothing. This will enable us to highlight both the campaign and Soroptimism.
Literature on the campaign focus and leaflets about Soroptimism will be available to pass on to anyone who shows an interest in our activity. As it is a Thursday, it was agreed that the first Orange Cafe meeting would be on 25th May at the Richmond Town Hall coffee morning. We could ‘kill two birds with one stone’ by supporting this coffee morning as it was also being run by one of our members on behalf of her charity.
OUR OWN COFFEE MORNING
We will be running a coffee morning of our own at the Town Hall on June 22nd to raise funds for the charities we are supporting. Members signed up to a volunteer sheet for this event, and were reminded to bring items for the raffle and tombola to the next meeting.
SI HARARE
Our new Friendship Officer, Wendy was delighted to report to us that SI Harare had written to thank us for the money donated last year. They tell us they have bought a printer, ink and paper for Dalston Primary School, their latest project, and students were also presented with sanitary supplies in toiletry bags. We received some photos of the presentation:
