Each year the club chooses to acknowledge 2 UN Days – this year it has been Literacy and Mental Health Awareness. The club held a meeting to discuss issues surrounding mental health and well-being during Mental Health Awareness week in May. Breaking down barriers to Mental Health issues.  To continue this we invited Lucy Adams Community Development Director and Katie Moss of West Kent Mind to speak at our October club meeting on 8th October – this was the nearest date to International Mental Health Day 10th October. Lucy and Katie spoke about the mental health charity and the services, advice and support that they give in the community. They offer counselling, supported housing, Well-being activities and groups, workshops, training and more. Some of the other wonderful work that they do is Mental Health for schools – “Working to equip teachers with knowledge and skills

We were delighted to welcome 2 Girlguides Eleanor Keen and Sruti Rehman from 12th Tonbridge Senior Section and their families to our Sept club meeting. Back in the summer we had help to sponsor them for the London and South East Region (LaSER) international expedition. Sruti took part in the Thailand expedition along with 11 Senior section members and 3 leaders and Eleanor in Mongolia. It was great to hear all the adventures and experiences they both had. Eleanor had volunteered at the Child Smile Hope Centre in Ulaanbaatar supporting the disadvantaged children, organising and running educational activities with the younger children, teaching English to the older children and renovating a school building. Eleanor took part in cultural activities at the weekend and evenings such as sleeping overnight in a traditional gur and met the Mongolian Girl Scouts. Here is Sruti’s account of her expedition

The club held a “Journeys through Literacy” event in celebration of the United Nations Literacy Day 8th September 2019 jointly with Sevenoaks Library in their gallery. https://www.un.org/en/events/literacyday/ The event could just have easily been called from ‘Global to Local’ as the 15 minute presentations covered ‘Literacy in a pre literate society’ working with an indigenous tribe in Brazil given by Margaret Alford and ‘Bloom where you are planted’  an English speaking programme delivered by Sevenoaks Welcomes Refugess to the Syrian refugees living in the Sevenoaks area. We were so pleased to welcome two refugees, a father and daughter who spoke of their experiences and feelings of coping in a new country. ’Success in a turnaround school’ by Sally Quirk Head Teacher St, John’s Primary School, Sevenoaks. This was a story of a failing school which now has a waiting list, and ‘Inclusive Learning that changes lives’

President Penny collected the new club roller banner from Marc of Kallkwik Sevenoaks. We are all excited and cannot wait to use the new banner at our next event in the Sevenoaks Library on 20th August. Thank you so much  Marc and Julie for arranging the production of the banner so efficiently, great service. We are very pleased with it!  https://www.kallkwik.co.uk/sevenoaks/roller-banners/  

Volunteer Garden Club Members were invited by the Sevenoaks Town Council Open Spaces and Leisure Committee to the attend King Henry’s Walk Garden Islington trip as a thank you for volunteering on a monthly basis at The Vine Sevenoaks sensory garden and herb garden.  This was a most informative trip and we all came back with lots of ideas for gardening in small spaces, creating a woodland area, trails and signage. “King Henry’s Walk Garden is an award-winning green space in the Mildmay ward of Islington, created by the local community, for the local community. The Friends of King Henry’s Walk Garden were honoured to receive a visit from HRH The Duchess of Cambridge on January 15th to see how the project brings people together through gardening and food growing.”  https://khwgarden.org.uk/about-the-garden/ Please do take a look at the photo album of our trip https://photos.app.goo.gl/rBe2EvaEP51qkMgU7  

Club members held their annual Summer lunch at The Chaser Shipbourne with a raffle in aid of Camfed and Arts without Boundaries.   We all had a most enjoyable time in a lovely courtyard setting – it was such a hot day Assistant Manager Liam very kindly drew across the canopy to provide us with shade.  The staff were most welcoming and accommodating and the chef did a sterling job to produce such delicious fresh food on a scorcher of a day!  Thank you to the Chaser for donating a raffle prize too.  http://www.thechaser.co.uk/  

SI Sevenoaks club members attended the SI South East Region June Meeting where they celebrated and acknowledged World Ocean Day by wearing blue. World Oceans Day takes place every 8 June. The concept was originally proposed in 1992 by Canada’s International Centre for Ocean Development and the Ocean Institute of Canada at the Earth Summit – UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Wikipedia .  Why Celebrate World Oceans Day? https://www.un.org/en/events/oceansday/ “We celebrate World Oceans Day to remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. They are the lungs of our planet, providing most of the oxygen we breathe. The purpose of the Day is to inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean, develop a worldwide movement of citizens for the ocean, and mobilize and unite the world’s population on a project for

The club took part in the bi-annual Jacque Emery Award and we are delighted that our entry Chloe from Walthamstow Hall was the “winner of winners”.  The title of the essay was “To what extent have women worldwide achieved equality?”    21 schools entered and there were 177 essays judged.   Chloe and her family attended our SI South East Region Meeting on Saturday where Chloe very eloquently read out her essay.  

Club members are continuing to plant and maintain The Vine Sensory garden ahead of the South and South East in Bloom judging day on 5th July. It is looking very colourful with the theme of the competition for 2019 being red, white and blue and edible plants.  We have also just been given the herb garden area at The Vine to maintain – looking forward to planting edible herbs! We were delighted that the Mayor for Sevenoaks Cllr Nicholas Busvine OBE came to visit the garden yesterday, to see all our efforts and hard work.

President Penelope Robbins and Programme Action Officer Isobel Groves went up to Chelsea Flower Show to support and see the Camfed Garden. Camfed is the Presidents chosen International Charity for the year and the club has already been fundraising for bicycles for girls to ride to school and agricultural business starter packs. Penelope and Isobel were delighted to meet ladies from the CAMA alumnae network from Zimbabwe who shared their horticultural expertise and the designer of the garden Jilayne Rickards. The garden won Gold and Best in Show in the “Space to Grow Gardens” category which is amazing as it is the first time the designer had exhibited at Chelsea! https://camfed.org/latest-news/chelsea-garden-gold-medal/