38 members attended the June meeting at a new venue, the Holiday Inn at Rochester.
May was membership month and the ideal time to showcase who and what we do as Soroptimists to improve the lives of Women and Girls and so much more.
SI SEVENOAKS PAST member Isobel White, who moved to Blackburn in April 2024, had left them with a donation for the South East Region President’s charity (ABCD). Sevenoaks Club Treasurer Margaret Nicholson took the opportunity of presenting the money to Regional President Alison Driscoll on May 28 at Sevenoaks’ new members and fundraising coffee morning. Pictured are Margaret Nicholson, President Alison Driscoll and PAO Sandie Higgs.
AT THEIR MAY 23, meeting, the Croydon Soroptimists celebrated their 97th Anniversary
President Alison attended SI Medway and Maidstone’s AGM Dinner on 11 April at the Holiday Inn at Rochester.
A Silent Auction was held at the March Regional Meeting. This was in aid of President Alison’s chosen charity, Action around Bethlehem Children with Disability (ABCD). ABCD was set up 35 years ago. It works to improve the lives of children with disabilities across Palestine regardless of faith race or gender. Jane Barnes had produced an Auction catalogue, with information on the 16 lots donated by the clubs. The catalogue was circulated in advance with descriptions and reserve price for each lot. The goal was to raise monies to fund a Speech and Language Therapist for a year and then apply for match funding. The total raised by the Auction was £1240.00. The star buy was the double quilt – many thanks to Jenni Mogridge (SI Bromley) for donating this item which she had made herself – and for being such an able auctioneer. The
During our March Regional meeting one of our speakers Val Jourdon brought along some Holy Land cake to taste.
The speakers at our March Regional meeting were from the charity Action Around Bethlehem Children with Disabilities (ABCD). This is a charity which President Alison has been associated with for many years. It was started 35 years ago by Val Jourdan, a paediatric physiotherapist. She had undertaken a placement in Bethlehem with the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. There is a high incidence of disability with a high rate of complications around birth and early years cases. There is little use of birth control and marriages within isolated rural communities. This leads to a large number of genetic disorders. There is still a stigma attached to any form of disability, even within families with disabled children. There is a tendency to hide them away, so without some intervention, Val explained that these children live isolated and unproductive lives. ABCD, is a charity based in the UK. It
