South Lancashire’s Soroptimists put ‘practical action’ into practice at the recent regional meetings.
Guest speaker Glyn Jones, from Practical Action spoke about the charity’s mission to empower people – especially women – in developing countries to maximise their potential. Sound familiar? This involves “inspiring people to discover and adopt ingenious, practical ways to free themselves from poverty and disadvantage”.
The charity works specifically to expand solar power energy, to enhance agricultural practice, to improve water/wastewater facilities and to reduce the impact of natural disasters.
Through technology – often very simple and always appropriate to each community – Practical Action aims to promote sustainable development. At a clinic in Zimbabwe, for example, a solar energy ‘farm’ produces electricity to provide lighting (for women giving birth at night) and to refrigerate medicines.
Yvonne Gibbon, Regional Programme Action Officer, said, “Glyn’s descriptions of projects such as ‘Pumpkins against Poverty’ in Bangladesh and ‘Killer in the Kitchen’ in Nepal certainly caught the Soroptimists’ attention. Many have already expressed an interest in finding out more about Practical Action and its impact.”
Meanwhile, members’ impact on the ‘plastic mountain’ was considerably reduced when – for the first time – SIGBI’s reusable cups, as well as assorted china mugs from home, were put to practical use for the meeting’s refreshments. Four meetings a year – that’s hundreds of plastic cups no longer needed.