Christmas gifts delivered to the ladies we support locally, Christmas tree back down from the  Christmas Tree Festival and Christmas Market Stall done, we decided it was time for us to kick back and enjoy ourselves. Our delicious Christmas meal this year at our usual meeting place of the Chapter House in Salisbury gave us the chance to get to know each other and some of our potential members a little better.

Our Christmas Market stall appearance was filmed for That’s Salisbury, which is available locally on Freeview Channel 7, or via YouTube. See us here:  

We were pleased with the response we received from the public passing though Salisbury’s Cheese Market to the UK wide survey carried out in early October to establish people’s knowledge of human trafficking and modern day slavery.   24% of those who took part in the survey said they didn’t know how widespread trafficking and modern day slavery was in the Salisbury area. Some 32% of those questioned said that they thought it was widespread or fairly widespread locally. Several people who took part in the survey recalled Salisbury Journal reports of police raids on the Firsdown car wash and the Chilmark bunker, where trafficking and slavery were suspected. Most people said that they did not know how to recognise whether someone had been trafficked or was being kept against their will, with 74% of respondents saying they would not recognise these signs, which include

Salisbury members spent an enjoyable day networking with the Eve Appeal and other local cancer charities including Wessex Cancer Trust at the Fisherton Street Surgery. Specialist cancer nurses and public health specialists were on hand to chat to women about cancer concerns. The Salisbury Soroptimists provided free cakes and delivered what was left at the end of the day to Salisbury Women’s Refuge. We did some great networking, met some lovely potential members for the new club and had a great fun day!    

  At the August meeting of the Salisbury Satellite Group three members were welcomed in to the club. All three of them have already been working on projects to support women and girls in the local community.     We are now close to our target 12 members to form the new club, exciting times ahead!

At an enjoyable dinner meeting in the Chapter House Hotel, three new members were inducted into the group on Monday 8 May 2017. Members of sponsoring Club SI Winchester came to join the celebrations as well as Regional President Ruth Healey, pictured at the top of the table centre right of this photo: Guest speaker was Mary Paisey, bottom left of the photo above. Mary was a member of the original SI Salisbury, a past Regional President and is Chairman of the Trust of Salisbury Women’s Refuge, a charity which Salisbury Satellite group is already supporting. Several  potential new members also joined the dinner and we look forward to catching up with everyone again in the near future!