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.  

Soroptimists from Southampton, Chichester, Winchester and Cambridge clubs joined members for a fun evening of skittles and curry. Half a dozen teams took to the bowling alley at Southwick Park Golf Club after a splendid curry supper. The lead changed hands a few times over three rounds until finally one of three teams from the home club, Celia Veal, her husband Gordon and friend Pat Bennetta, were declared winners. The event was organised by Stella Astbury, MC was Tracy Gardiner, and a total of £147 was raised for the club’s charity fund. A raffle run by Rosemary Bell raised £75.

Ten keen Soroptimists, one Soroptimister On the day of Action which happens once a year With their back bags, litter pickers, red gloves, yellow vests (Fareham Borough Council provided all the gear.)   Out on the beach in the hot bright sun With the swimmers and sunbathers working on their tans We found sweet wrappers, crisp packets, bottle tops, drinking straws Plastic bags, bits of string and squashed drink cans.

MEMBERS enjoyed a leisurely walk around Titchfield on a very warm July evening with a talk by local historian George Watts. They set off from the community centre car park to the ancient St Peter’s parish church where Mr Watts pointed out that the building had evolved over the centuries since its beginning in the year 680. He reeled off many interesting facts such as the inclusion of Roman bricks in the facade, doubts about whether Titchfield existed as a community when the church was built and how the impressive Wriothesley family mausoleum came to be established in one corner. He mused over whether William Shakespeare had visited the area thanks to the patronage of the Earl of Southampton who had built a stately home nearby. Mr Watts said that his own theory that Shakespeare had spent his “lost years” at Titchfield was as likely

Caroline Barfoot visited the club to give a talk on social media – which followed on nicely from a recent short course taken by about 12 members at Fareham College; you can find her profile on Solent University staff page at this link, on Facebook here, on Twitter here, on LinkedIn here and on Pinterest here! She gave a quick overview of the main social media applications, hoping to show their scope and power for good. She explained that each had their own particular slant on enabling communication: whether sharing what we like, what we think, what we work as or what hobbies we have. • Facebook is for what and who you like, and to get a message out to the world (e.g. David Cameron, or Heinz soup); • Twitter forces you to be concise, to say what you think in less than 140