We all like doing quizzes at Christmas, don’t we? We thought we’d set you a STEM Christmas Challenge as part of our display at the St Thomas’ Church Christmas Tree Festival. Do come and see our tree, opening times are: Tuesday 4 December to Saturday 8 December  – 10am to 6pm Sunday 9 December 12 noon to 6pm (last entries 5.30pm)   The tree is decorated with images of local women working in STEM careers alongside images of female STEM pioneers and leaders from the past and present. Match the face and name to the description, complete a form and submit it in the entry box under the tree for a chance to win a small prize. The form is downloadable here too, and you can complete it and return it to sarumsoropts@gmail.com Entry form for Salisbury Soroptimist STEM Christmas Competition The closing date for

Our first fundraising event was a great success! The total raised was £1,160, which will give the Women’s Refuge travel fund a good start and will allow another two sewing machines to be purchased in the EdUKaid Kushona Project in Tanzania. Tickets sold out more than a week before the event and the room truly was packed. Questions for each round of the quiz as well as a fun game of chance at the meal break, were expertly introduced by Annie Riddle from Salisbury Journal. As well as teams from SI Southampton and SI Winchester there were teams of local friends and family as well as supporters from across the area who generously supported our event. There was a bar as well as a raffle, with many excellent prizes. We are very grateful to all local businesses who kindly donated items in support of our

We were delighted to welcome more than a dozen women to our open afternoon on Saturday 8 September at the Quakers Meeting House in Salisbury.     Meeting like-minded women living locally was the plan for the afternoon, and it was great to find we all shared similar aims in our desire to improve the lives of women and girls.     We are involved in supporting our local Women’s Refuge, and will be running a fundraising Quiz Night in November in support of a travel fund to help residents of the Refuge who have to travel to attend court cases. Half the Quiz proceeds will go to support a project run by local charity EdUKaid, which will help women in rural Tanzania with a sewing machines to make products to sell to fund their children’s education. Many of the women who we met at

‘Bras and bubbly’ event – ‘supporting’ a worthy cause! Members and a few potential new members joined together for a  fun social occasion with a serious message, one warm evening in July. Great conversation, laughter and discussion of our on going projects was shared over a glass or two of bubbly in Penny’s lovely garden. Then down to the slightly more serious task – bras – 400 of them to be exact – had been donated by generous local women from choirs, dance classes, yoga groups, the women’s refuge and our collection box at the Five Rivers Heath and Wellbeing Centre. We sorted, counted and packed the bras up ready for onward transport. All the donated bras will go to ‘Smalls for All’, a Scottish Charity which collects and distributes underwear to help women and children in Africa. The charity helps those living in orphanages, slums, refugee

Our speaker at the first of our new Wednesday evening speaker/supper meetings on 11 April will be Teresa Wells, Programme Director for EdUKaid. Teresa will give a presentation on the challenges children face in accessing an education in the developing world and how a small, Salisbury based, charity have achieved such an incredible impact in some of the most remote areas of rural Tanzania. The meeting starts at 7pm in the White Hart Hotel, St John’s Street, Salisbury and after a 2 course meal costing £15, there will then be a short break. If you would prefer not to eat with us you can join us at 8pm when our speaker Teresa will address us.  Do come along and join us for this new and slightly more sociable meeting! You are most welcome to bring friends to the Supper Meeting as long as you please let us know.

As part of efforts to attract more local women to join the embryo Club, members of the Salisbury Satellite Group have mounted a display in the window of Salisbury Library for the month of February 2018.  

Members, partners and potential members and friends met up on Saturday 13 January to play pub skittles at the Swan at Stoford. The evening provided a great opportunity for members of the new Club to get to know each other a little better and for our other halves to meet each other. We enjoyed a good pub meal and several friendly games of skittles. The winning team shared the chocolates with all players and the ‘wooden spoons’ were awarded to the third team. Thanks to Teresa for organising the evening and to staff at the Swan for making us welcome. We must do it again soon!    

Make a New Year’s resolution to make a difference for women and girls in 2018. Come and join the newest women’s club in Salisbury and you can achieve just that! Want to find out more? Salisbury Soroptimists are running a table display at Five Rivers Health and Well Being Centre from 8 to 14 January 2018.   There will be information about the projects we have worked on during 2017 with the Salisbury Women’s Refuge and the Alabaré Mother and Baby House, as well as the STEM project we are running for girls in local schools during 2018. You can also find out more about the issues we care deeply about; safety for women in Salisbury’s night time economy, support for women exposed to domestic violence, how trafficking and modern day slavery impacts women and girls, and strategies to help prevent forced marriage. All about making

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: