Where has the beginning of the year gone?! It’s the old adage – “if you want something doing ask a busy person” and Soroptimists are always busy!
On Monday 10 February we had a face-to-face Club Meeting in the new Community Hall at St Albans United Reformed Church Greenwood https://stalbansurc.org/ . Club Member Anna Barratt, who was instrumental in the development of the new hall, gave a presentation about the background to the building and its eco-positive structure and features.
Sarah Lichman, Club Treasurer, explained our commitment to the charity and microfinance organisation “Lend With Care” https://lendwithcare.org/ which is part of “Care International”. Sarah explained that we lend to groups of women, mainly in Africa. The project started in 2019 with the Club lending £200 in relatively small amounts which the recipients repay to the best of their ability. She identifies projects run mainly by groups of women as they work together and that makes the loans more secure. Since the start we have made 32 loans and lent £1710 in total. Only one has defaulted by £30.68 and there have been outgoings of £85.46 as a result of currency fluctuations. As the sum available to loan has diminished, Club Members voted in favour of providing a further £100 to be lent when the opportunity arises. We currently have 4 loans – 2 in Togo, 1 in Malawi and 1 in Zambia. The Project is part of our commitment to improved ‘Prosperity’ (one of the 5 “P”s for the UN Sustainability Goals), for women through our Project Action. Nationally, SIGBI tracks the contribution from many UK Clubs.
KNOW YOUR SISTERS – We divided into groups of three to discuss why we became Soroptimists and what we hope to achieve in the Club in the future. This was a valuable session with lots of suggestions. We were all reminded that : Awareness, Advocacy, Action underpin what we do through the Teams (Peace, Planet and People)https://sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/about-our-club/project-teams/ .
We took a photo (see above) in preparation for International Women’s Day on 8 March. The pose is similar to “Rosie the Riveter” from WWII posters.
On Monday 24th February we heard from our talented Member Beatriz Chadour-Sampson about her glittering career curating jewellery museums – click here to read all about it: https://sigbi.org/st-albans-and-district/2025/beatriz/.
On Wednesday 26th Feb Barbara and Diana went over to Baldock, where Kat now lives, to meet her for afternoon tea together. They had a lovely tea at Tapps Garden Centre – something they said was definitely to be repeated! They wore Orange in support of the United Nations Campaign – on the 25th of every month we UNite to end violence against women and girls.
On Tuesday 4 March it was the St Albans Pancake Race – in aid of Home-Start Herts https://www.home-startherts.org.uk/ Soroptimists Jane, Sarah and Bev helped by volunteering on the day. The event raised the most ever money this year – £7215! this is an event that Club Members have supported since its inception, and the Club has supported the charity since 2007.
On Friday 7 Mar four Members of Soroptimist International St Albans & District (pictured here) Nono Nyathi, Debbie Tankard, Helen Atkinson and Jane Slatter were at St Albans Girls’ School for their International Women’s Day Inspiring Women Careers Event for Year 8 and Year 12 Students. The students are told that the purpose of the careers networking event is to provide them with the opportunity to meet with and learn about a variety of different careers, hearing about the journey that different people have made into 
their chosen profession, the qualifications that they have gained and the various different routes into careers today. STAGS year 8 girls were joined by girls from Adeyfield School in Hemel Hempstead (both schools are in the Atlas Multi-Academy Trust). They are encouraged to ask lots of questions to the women they meet with. These girls all have a great future – we hope we helped to inspire them! Soroptimists have been participating in this annual event since it’s inception. The group photo pose for International Women’s Day is similar to “Rosie the Riveter” from WWII posters.
On Mon 10 Mar we had a face-to-face Club Meeting at St Albans United Reformed Church, 
Greenwood when we celebrated both International Women’s Day and Helen Byrne’s “big” birthday! Helen is pictured here with flowers we presented her with. She kindly treated us all to “cake and bubbles” in place of our more pedestrian coffee and biscuits!
Unremarked Women – As the closest meeting to International Women’s Day, Members were asked to share the story of an “unremarked” woman- personal or otherwise – a woman they admired in 2 or 3 minutes.
Denise told us about a neighbour of hers, when growing up in Hendon, who ran a shop with her husband and was the mother of her friend Sharon. Renee Salt’s husband died and eventually Renee went into a home but she also became a speaker about the holocaust. In 1944 she had been sent to Auschwitz and then Bergen-Belsen. Denise had known nothing about this. Ameeta too had a connection with Mrs Salt and had done her feet for some years.
Barbara told us about her sister Anne. Anne died of breast cancer too soon at the age of 34. Anne was very creative and the middle child of the family. She fell pregnant and got married at 17 to an abusive partner. It was 21 December 1974. Barbara was home from university. There was a knock on the door and it was Anne with her little boy in the pushchair at 11.00 at night. She had left home as her husband threatened to bear her up. The police weren’t interested; Barbara and Derek went back to the house to get the Christmas presents and had to break in. Each room had been locked. Barbara took presents to the Refuge from us this Christmas and she remembered that it was 50 years since that Christmas when her sister had had to leave her home due to domestic violence. She rebuilt her life afterwards and had support from friends, workmates and family.
Sarah had an Aunt who was very important to her. She had been a strong influence on Sarah. She was a very proper lady and would always wear a hat and gloves. Her home life had been quite unhappy. Her mother died when she was only three and her father (Sarah’s grandfather) married again shortly afterwards. Sarah’s Aunt left home as soon as she could and joined the WAAF, and worked for Lewis’s as a menswear buyer. She never married, when she retired at 60 she became an au-pair in Italy and then looked after foreign students at school in UK who couldn’t go home in the holidays. Then Sarah discovered that her prim and proper Aunt had become an artists’ model at a local college. Sarah wondered whether she might have been a life model!
Helen chose to tell us about Christine de Pizan (September 1364 – c. 1430). Helen discovered her at the British Library’s exhibition ” Medieval women: in their own words”. Christine was an Italian-born French court writer for King Charles VI of France, after the death of her husband. Christine’s patrons also included several French royal dukes including Louis I of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and his son John the Fearless. Considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, Christine’s work includes novels, poetry, and biography, and she also penned literary, historical, philosophical, political, and religious reviews and analyses. Her best known works are The Book of the City of Ladies and The Treasure of the City of Ladies, both prose works written when she worked for John the Fearless of Burgundy. Her books of advice to princesses, princes, and knights remained in print until the 16th century. She defends women by collecting a wide array of famous women throughout history. Each woman introduced to the city adds to Pizan’s argument towards women as valued participants in society. She also advocates in favour of education for women. Wikipedia entry about Christine de Pizan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_de_Pizan tells more about Christine and includes an illustration from an illuminated manuscript showing Christine lecturing to some important men.
Nono – Nono spoke to us about her boss Josephine who she admired for being a partner in her Company, one of only two women partners out of ten partners. Also because she wanted to do all she could for other women in business. Outside of work she was a Soroptimist and despite having no children of her own she supported Childline and other charities that supported children. She made a big impact on children, women and girls.
Jane – Jane talked about Mary Barkess one of our former Soroptimists. Mary is pictured here with a cake to mark her 90th birthday. Joan Williams had designed and made the cake to look like a computer. Mary had been born and brought up in the North East. She had been a sickly child and had had TB so she was home-schooled. She was a voracious reader and highly intelligent and ended up with a first-class degree in History. During the war, she trained as a teacher and then joined the Civil Service in the Ministry of Labour. Later in her career as work was becoming computerised she went on a programming course to help her manage the staff that would produce the required statistics for the Department of Employment. Mary looked after her aged parents and due to a work move joined SI St Albans. She had been the founder President of SI Gateshead. Jane used to drive Mary to and from Soroptimist meetings – on journeys she enjoyed her stories and sayings, one being “If you’re a bit heavy it’s good for your bones!”Kemi our potential member explained that her mother is a Soroptimist. She had wanted Kemi to become a Soroptimist and Kemi got to know the sort of things Soroptimists got involved with. Unfortunately her mother developed Alzheimer’s and had difficulty in remembering and recognising things and people but she remembers all about Soroptimism.
After our shared stories, we had “cake and bubbles” with Helen (see photo above). We closed the meeting with some Club Business (covered in the notes that are in the Members’ area of the website).
Our last International Women’s Day event was the SI London Chilterns Region Conference and Celebration of International Women’s Day on Wednesday 12 Mar at the University of Hertfordshire – you can read more about it here: https://sigbi.org/london-chilterns/iwd25/. Attending from our Club were Jane, Helen, Denise, Diana, Janet T and Sarah. Our prospective Member Temi was able to join us again too, which was lovely. Temi is also an alumnus of the University Law School – hosts of our event – serendipity at its best!