Guests from other Soroptimist clubs joined members for this meeting. Club Secretary Alison welcomed the guests to the meeting and clarified that the meeting would be briefer than usual because members had just learned of the death of Johanna Raffan. While this had been anticipated, following her recent stroke, it was a significant shock to everyone who had known her. It had been decided to continue with the meeting as it was felt this was what Johanna would have wished. The club was offered the condolences of those Soroptimists who had been lucky enough to have known Johanna. Those who had worked closely with her also expressed their appreciation of her friendship and commitment to Soroptimism.   A minute’s silence was observed as a mark of respect. Commonwealth War Graves Commission   https://www.cwgc.org Alison welcomed our guest speaker and asked Sushi (Programme Action Officer) to make the

A special welcome was extended to a number of guests including Regional President Helen Byrne who joined this Zoom meeting.   The meeting started with a reading of the Soroptimist Vision and Mission Statement. The speaker Summreen Sheikh was introduced by Sushi Gow. The presentation covered the background to the setting up of Greenpeace and the range of campaigns it has been involved in and then moved on to a discussion of how to take practical action to reduce plastic waste. Greenpeace is an independent organisation with 3 million members spread across 41 countries. Its work started in 1971 with a campaign against Nuclear testing in the Arctic circle. More recently it developed a TV advert about the increasing use of Palm oil – this was banned but went viral on the Internet. Summreen pointed out that the damage done to the Amazonian rain forest was

Back again on Zoom! Our January meeting was once again via Zoom. We had a great talk from Ann Beatty of the Steve Sinnott Foundation about their work worldwide (Changing Lives Through Education) and in particular their work in Sierra Leone which was of  interest to our club because of our support for the Kori Project in Sierra Leone. Ann told us the history of the foundation and then proceeded to outline their Positive Period project they run in Sierra Leone and Gambia. Further information on their projects can be found on their website. Ann also discussed their recent project of supplying [from in country] solar powered radios so that children can continue their studies during the pandemic. Each radio cost about £25 in country. In Sierra Leone both the government and teachers themselves, are producing learning programmes. Ann emphasised that the foundation’s policy was,

Once again, prior to Christmas. SI Thames Valley provided shoping vouchers for the 12 residents of the refuge.   Also, in December, we learnt that WWA had again received a cheque from Waitrose for £333  from their token scheme.   One of our club members had nominated WWA as a recipient.

Recently, members of Soroptimist International in the Thames Valley joined hundreds of people from around the world for a special event from the United Nations. Coinciding with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women ( 25 November), the UN webinar focussed on this issue, which shockingly affects one in three women globally during their lifetime. Violence against women takes many forms including domestic abuse, child marriage, human trafficking and FGM. The Secretary General of the UN said that the COVID pandemic had exposed violence against women as a global emergency requiring urgent action. Rates especially of domestic violence have dramatically escalated around the world. The pandemic has exacerbated the risk factors for it. For example, lockdown measures in many countries have meant that girls are not able to go to school, and women cannot easily leave their homes. Mr Guterres said

How would life be if you woke up tomorrow as the opposite gender? I am both a Rotarian and a Soroptimist. Since lockdown, as with Rotary, I have attended lots of Zoom talks run by other clubs. The East Grinstead club has attracted some amazing speakers, including Jen Toll, whose fascinating talk I recently watched, and where this question came from. Jen is a mother of two daughters, who was disappointed by the messages on clothing for girls. They tended to use words such as pretty, perfect, and sweet, whereas clothes for boys often used terms like cool, brave, and daring. In addition, she saw that there were lots of references to princesses and none to scientists! These things put limits on the beliefs that girls had about themselves, and what they thought they could become as they grew up. This showed itself in a