At the first Programme Action meeting of President Liz McConnell’s year, South Lancashire’s Soroptimists welcomed Frances Seth, Northwest Volunteer Co-ordinator for Save the Children UK, as their guest speaker.
After outlining Save the Children’s history, Frances homed in on some of the charity’s campaigns, both at home and abroad. These include the successful UK programme Families And Schools Together (FAST) which fosters child/adult interaction, improves the child’s ability to learn and has a positive effect on behaviour.
Save the Children UK is always looking for long-term benefits, whether through education, food security, relationships or the local economy.
Frances showed footage of her visit to Niger in western Africa, where she was able to find out at first hand about some of Save the Children’s projects. The charity may set up the programmes, but always aims to train local people to continue them so that they evolve in line with community needs. Frances’s visit to a feeding station – observing the efficacy of, for example, ‘plumpy nut’ food supplements (produced locally from peanut oil) – is indelibly etched in her memory.
Margaret Molyneux, Regional Programme Action Officer, reminded members that Save the Children UK is a partner organisation through the UK Programme Action Committee (UKPAC). The UKPAC continually works to forge partnerships with other non-government organisations (NGOs), believing that by ‘working together we can make a difference’.
In other business, Joan Lunt (SI Southport) updated members on the progress of the Brighton Federation Conference resolution on ovarian cancer. Soroptimists are, in particular, asked to mark Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month in March – perhaps by combining a publicity effort with International Women’s Day on 8th March, or by placing leaflets (detailing symptoms, etc) in locations such as health clubs, nail bars and salons where women are the prime customers. And when it comes to publicity, teal is to ovarian cancer as pink is to breast cancer.