LIFE as a district reporter on a local newspaper with its variety of articles was the inside story given to club members at the monthly speaker meeting. Kimberley Barber of The News explained that she covered such a wide range of stories on her patch, from Bishops Waltham to the outskirts of Portsmouth, that she had to be prepared for anything. “I now carry everything from wellies to a smart jacket in my car,”she said. Most stories are tip offs from the general public. One example was the coverage of the floods in Wallington last year when she was the first on the scene. Within hours of posting the story online the national media had descended on the village. The ensuing publicity meant Wallington received a great deal of support and flood defences were quickly improved. Local stories often feed up to the national media.

CLUB members were given a talk about Tanzania by a local woman who has an unusual passion – for rubbish. Lucy Swanbrow spoke eloquently about a number of environmental projects she had been involved in that were being carried out by Project Takataka, Kswahilli for rubbish. She explained that she first visited Tanzania to see her father’s cousin Faye Cran. She fell in love with the country and has consequently been back for several three-month spells and became involved in many charitable projects. “Tanzania has fantastic landscapes, wildlife and flora and the people are very friendly,” she said. But rubbish is everywhere, roads and rivers are clogged with detritus, the locals just drop their rubbish as they go. Trying to change this is a Herculean task. “It’s a country of extreme contrasts between luxury hotels and extremely poor rural areas where people are lucky to get one meal a

Examples of how policing has improved in relation to women, particularly victims of sex assaults and domestic abuse, were brought to the attention of the club as they marked their fortieth anniversary. Guest speaker Assistant Chief Constable Laura Nicholson, the only woman of her rank in Hampshire Constabulary, said that policing “is essentially about keeping people safe.” They had made significant progress in the way they dealt with women but, in her view, they could always do better. She recalled having to deal with her first rape and domestic abuse cases, in the late eighties, when it became clear how little support there was for women victims and how little training there was for police officers dealing with such incidents. “Today Hampshire has a stand-alone group that deals with rape and sex assaults and offers support for victims.” She talked of the impressive variety of posts she

   THANKS were due to everyone who had played a part in guiding the club through a second year without a president, members were told at the annual general meeting. Acting president Rosemary Bell said for the last year the club had also been without a secretary. “We’ve adapted and survived,” she said. “And with our fortieth anniversary coming up it will hopefully bode well for the future.” Christine Wilkes reported on the success of projects undertaken in the past year. These included raising awareness of the issues affecting women in prison that were flagged up at a meeting with the police commissioner Simon Hayes, violence against women with the distribution of 750 bookmarks to local youngsters, and 21 backpacks sent to Malawi for the charity Mary’s Meals. Donations of food were made to Fareham basics bank and 15 quilts given to children at the

ELEVEN Soroptimists from Southern England region went on a study tour of South Africa where they were the guests of seven clubs spread throughout the country. One of the eleven, club member Pam Grosvenor gave a wonderful talk illustrated with slides on the wide range of projects they visited in seven different parts of South Africa. “It’s one of the best things I’ve done as a Soroptimist,” Pamela told her audience. “We visited places tourists never normally visit and saw at first hand the work done by Soroptimists working with other organisations in a country with an enormous gulf between rich and poor.” As well as visiting impressive projects involving Soroptimists the group fitted in some sightseeing during their two-week trip and a highlight was seeing the Apartheid Museum and also the Soweto home of the late President Mandela. They began their tour at a

IT is a sad indictment that in 2014 there are a great many needy people in cities such as Portsmouth, club members were told in a talk by Jenny Johns, chairman of Portsmouth Family Welfare Association (PFWA). Despite the welfare state there are still a lot of people without homes, jobs and even food, she said. “We receive an average of ten requests for assistance every day and last year we helped 1,877 people by providing household items, clothing and sometimes food.” Mrs Johns has been chairman of the organisation for 12 years and club member Celia Veal serves on its committee. The group need around £10,000 a year to keep going and rely mainly on volunteers who also help with fundraising. Mrs Johns said changes in the benefits system had meant an increase in the number of clients asking for their help. “Someone loses

The club’s annual coffee morning, held at the Hill Head home of former president Pat Hanns, raised the impressive sum of £279.20. The event attracted scores of members and friends who enjoyed coffee and biscuits and were also able to browse among lots of goods for sale. A wide selection of items ranging from clothes, scarves, handbags, hand-made cakes and Christmas decorations to books and bric-a-brac were on offer. There were also goods brought back from South Africa by member Pam Grosvenor. Proceeds from the event will go to local charities. Pictured are a handful of those who attended alongside some of the items for sale.

MEMBERS heard all about the history of the Fareham Community Hospital at the Coldeast site from Chairman of the Friends, Jill Sadler, shown in the picture flanked by club members Kathleen Durning and Rosemary Coward. Jill started with the history of the site, which had been a country seat during the 19th century for the Montefiore family. Second son Claude hadn’t expected to inherit, but funded a parish nurse, and ultimately donated the land to the council for housing those with mental disabilities. It had a farm, a shop, a school, social club, chapel etc. so made the place a self-sufficient community. It became part of the tradition of care, in the local community, maintained at the Coldeast site all the way through to the 1970s (when the previous hospital was closed). The new hospital, which won a new build award from Fareham History Society, is

  Ten members spent a fun afternoon making and decorating cup cakes at the Little Flour Cakery at West Wellow, near Romsey. ”We all had great fun mixing and for some it was a new experience to decorate the cakes, having made the flowers to go on top,” said Alison Jenkins, who organised the trip. Everyone made a dozen cup cakes and decorated them before they were put in presentation boxes to be taken home. “We also had afternoon tea which we thoroughly enjoyed,” said Alison.