On Saturday February 20th Regional President Katie Lang, presided over a meeting with 48 members from across Scotland North in attendance.
SI Dundee President, Frances Menter read the mission statement at the start of the Council meeting. Each club gave a short presentation of their PA work and how this was continuing despite the Covid pandemic. One big advantage of Zoom meetings has been that clubs have been able to invite other clubs to their meetings and speakers have been Zooming in from far and near.
Region Programme Officer Janice Wilson gave a presentation on how to complete PFRs on the SIGBI website. Members were reminded that if a PFR was not completed then the activity would not be registered at Regional or Federation level.
The afternoon speakers were co-founders of the Free to Live Trust, Pam Cairns and Avril Duncan.
Pam gave a brief history of the Trust, pointing out just how much Soroptimists across Scotland had helped with FTLT’s, Seema’s Project. This might have been through personal donation, helping at fundraising activities or being members of the FTLT Speakers Team who have given presentations to community groups across Scotland. The Project in India now supports over sixty children in the Children’s Centre in Bori and has rescued many prostitutes, restoring them to their rightful place in society.
Avril’s debut novel- Diverted Traffic– was published recently. Avril spoke about her lifelong love of writing and the struggles faced by authors to be published.
A frequent visitor to India, staying at the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Centre in Pune, Avril explained how she learnt about poverty and exploitation through the volunteering opportunities arranged by the Centre. It was during one of these visits that the author met face to face with victims of human trafficking and their children.
Diverted Traffic is a terrific read, fast paced and gripping. It is available from Tippermuir Books and on Amazon both as paperback and for kindle.
