Just a regular Club meeting? We welcomed a new Member had an update about Smalls for All and heard about a new Club in Uganda. So maybe what we thought was a regular Club meeting was a rather modest description!
It is always a special evening when we officially welcome a new member to our Club. On Monday 13 Feb all Club Members were proud to welcome Shenara Abraham. Shenara is a Financial Adviser by profession and previously worked in the charity sector, supporting community projects in central London. These included homelessness outreach work and anti-trafficking. Shenara is passionate about community, especially women’s rights and wellbeing so we know that she will be fit in well with the St Albans Soroptimists! She will be a Member of the Club’s Peace Team and will have Sarah Lichman as her mentor. The photo l to r has Co-President Kat Clark, Shenara, Co-President Barbara Saunders and Membership Officer Jane Slatter – sharing “the hands of Soroptimist friendship” with one another.
Helen Byrne then gave us an update on “Smalls for All“. Linda Shall wanted to update us but sadly was unwell. Our Club has been collecting gently worn bras for this amazing charity since 2017. Its founder, Maria Macnamara, volunteered at oversees orphanages where she saw the debilitating impact of women and children not being able to wear underwear. In the beginning she collected pants and ‘gently worn bras’ to send to developing countries in Africa (and some areas in England and Scotland!) for distribution by organisations there to women who can’t afford or access underwear. Linda provided these photos – she is pictured with a huge truck that was in the carpark the day she visited and with two of the volunteers.
Linda reports: “In April 2018, my husband and I dropped off 6-7 plastic shopping bags of SIStA-donated ‘gently worn bras’ at Maria’s home in Livingstone where she and a handful of friends were sorting them in her octagonal garden room. In March 2022, we delivered 6-7 huge plastic sacks of bras and pants (new, in sealed packets) at her now enormous warehouse where she and an army of volunteers sort them onto massive lorries heading for Africa twice a week. 7 months later in October 2022 (pent-up Covid donations…) we sent 72 kilos of donations, strapped to a pallet via DHL. Their delivery address is Five Sisters Business Park, Westwood, West Calder EH55 8PN – near Livingstone between Glasgow and Edinburgh.” During the March 2022 visit Linda and her husband took photos, chatted with the volunteers and learned much more about how the charity has developed since its humble beginnings in 2010.
Nowadays SmallsforAll receives donations of:
- laundered ‘gently worn bras’ (traditional, sports and nursing) – for free distribution as before
- brand new, packaged pants – for free distribution to male and female adults and children to the same destinations
- brand new, ticketed bras (traditional, sports and nursing) and packaged pants – for sale to a UK family run recycling company to raise the funds needed to support the costs of running SmallsforAll – eg warehouse rent, power and water; lorry transport and administration costs etc. The recycling company sells these mainly new garments at pittance prices to women in developing countries to help them earn an income by selling them.
They do not seek donations of worn pants, thongs, cropped tops, bikini tops or of well-worn bras. If received they go to landfill as they do not know of any organisations that recycle bra textiles – do you?
By January 2023 SmallsforAll had collected 2,046,141 items of underwear! Why? Because dignity matters. Wearing underwear helps restore personal dignity to both men and women who cannot buy or access such garments. And in some cultures, wearing a bra can make a life-changing difference as those women can avoid being raped by men who perceive them as more respectable. Also, many teenage girls miss school and many women miss work if they cannot wear pants during their period. In addition requests for pants for men and boys are received from homeless charities, school banks, orphanages, slums, refugee camps, hospitals etc.
Linda is offering to do another delivery in April – so please get collecting those gently worn bras and maybe buy some packs of pants in sealed packs – our meeting on 13 March is a good opportunity to drop them off!
If you wish to make a donation please do so via the Club – you can donate by Paypal by clicking here sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/donate/ if you would prefer to make a bank transfer please ask for the Club’s bank details by emailing sistalbans@hotmail.com .
We also heard from, recently joined, Associate Soroptimist Member Caroline Tyrwhitt about a new Soroptimist Club in Wakiso in Uganda being chartered in March. Caroline is a mindset coach with a focus on empowering women. She has worked online with the leaders of Wakiso who want to empower the women. When she visits in March it will be her first visit to Africa – what an adventure! The new Soroptimist Club is setting up a health centre for women. One issue they want to address is ageing women dying from non-communicable diseases because they don’t receive any treatment. Other big issues are FGM, sexual violence against young women, high maternal death rate and a lack of education. Everyone wished Caroline luck on her travels and we look forward to hearing more about the work of these new Soroptimists, the celebrations at the charter event of this new Club in Uganda and all about this empowering adventure!
After this we all enjoyed tea/coffee and a chat together before ending the meeting by going through some Club business – notes will be sent to Members.
If this was just a regular Club meeting imagine how inspiring our other meetings are!