Almost 70 Soroptimists from 12 Southern England Clubs attended the Annual General Meeting at the HG Wells Centre in Woking on 19 September 2015.
Outgoing Regional President and member of SI Woking, Jackie Theobald, said: “I would like to start my report with a huge thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving as your regional President this year. The whole experience has enriched my membership of the wonderful organisation to which we all belong.”
The meeting reviewed the past year’s work of the Southern England Region. Incoming President Ruth Healey of the Guildford Soroptimists Club then outlined her programme for 2015-16. The work next year will build on the theme ‘By Women for Women, Making Us Visible’. SI Southern Region will concentrate more on its role as a service organisation than a fund-raising body and will be outward-looking rather than inward-looking. Reducing violence against women will continue to be a key focus (according to Amnesty International, one third of all women in the world will be beaten or abused in their lifetime). The VIP project to send a volunteer for work experience in South Africa, which was launched last year, will also continue. The 2015-16 Southern Region meetings will include as speakers two of our 16 representatives at the UN Commission for Women, who will discuss the work they do across 6 UN centres and Immediate Past President, Ann Garvie, who will report on her presidential year. Ruth suggested that in April 2016 the Sunday of Service be devoted to supporting the Southampton Marathon.
The AGM programme included some inspiring speakers. Peter Breddal of the Woking branch of Amnesty International (AI) talked about the work of the charity which was founded in 1961. ‘We step out of our everyday lives’, he said, ‘and do something we think is important. For us, it’s human rights abuses and issues.’ His colleague Jan Church then described AI’s ‘Stop Torture’ campaign, which began in 2014. The campaign targets 5 countries (Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Uzbekistan and Mexico) and analysis shows that there have been gains and some movement in attitudes. The ‘Stop Torture’ campaign is also calling for an end to advertising the tools of torture for sale.
Miriam Altaf and Ghazala Waheed presented the work of the Woking-based Shifa Women’s Wellbeing Project. Shifa began by helping mainly Asian women, but now provides services to women from a wide variety of ethnic groups in the east of the Borough. Projects include the teaching of English and life skills and an after-school homework club. There is also one-to-one counselling. The Shifa approach is to help women by empowering them in a respectful way that develops their innate abilities.
Finally, Violet Kushonga, Community Support Worker, spoke on behalf of the Terence Higgins Trust, which works with and advocates on behalf of people with HIV. She described in particular the activities of the Women’s Support Group in Woking. It aims to help the newly diagnosed to come to terms with their diagnosis and supports HIV sufferers long-term, building confidence and teaching life skills. Two service users movingly described their personal experience as women with HIV.
Outgoing President Jackie Theobald concluded the proceedings by reminding participants that the 2014-15 Regional theme was ‘Being Positive’, highlighting women who have triumphed over adversity. “We have heard some excellent examples of this today – women who have rebuilt their lives after being unlawfully imprisoned and tortured, women coming to terms with the multiple pressures of living in a new country, and women overcoming the stigma and trauma of an HIV diagnosis.”