International Women’s Day – Full report of these two events coming soon!
As well as hosting Smart Money, Strong Women – Gender Equality through financial empowerment on 8th March at King Charles the Martyr Hall, Tunbridge Wells, members of our club gave a talk and gathered views using our Soroptometer at the IWD Celebration at The Ridgemont Pavilion, Southborough on Friday 6th March.
SITWD celebrates Women’s leadership.
Members of the Tunbridge Wells and District Club worked in partnership with the local Southborough Society to organise and present a library display celebrating the significant contributions of local women, past and present, to the community.
Originally created as part of the Soroptimists’ 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, the exhibition resonated so strongly within the local community that it remained on display in the library until the end of February.
The exhibition highlighted women from the town of Southborough who have made or are making a meaningful difference to the safety and wellbeing of women and girls. It featured photographs of seven contemporary local women making a significant impact, alongside seven prominent women from Southborough’s past. Current representatives included GPs, a headteacher, a councillor and former Mayor of Southborough, a vicar, a community artist, and a Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador.
Past local residents featured in the display were:
- Katherine Tynan (1859 – 1931) – Poet, Novelist
- Amelia Scott (1860 – 1951) – Campaigner for Women’s Suffrage, Tunbridge Wells Councillor
- Margaret Bondfield (1873 – 1953) – First Female Cabinet Minister
- Doris Leslie (1891 – 1982) – Author, Woman of the Year for Literature 1973
- Violet Godfrey (1898 – 1996) – Singer, Local Choir Leader
- Elizabeth Garlick (1919 – 1991) – Chair of Southborough Urban Council, Mayor of Southborough
- Daisy Fletcher (1924 – 2014) – Mayor of Southborough, Tunbridge Wells Councillor
Club members Kathy Lewis and Amelia Dowler led the project in collaboration with the Southborough Society as part of a wider local initiative to raise awareness of, and speak out against, violence and abuse in all its forms. The exhibition also provided information and signposted organisations offering support to victims, as well as those working to prevent gender-based violence.
Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne combine to support a Girls Group in Bexhill
SITWD was contacted by a Youth Worker who runs a Girls Group in Bexhill. She had seen our President interviewed on a BBC Southeast news report about the ‘Reclaim the Night’ walk to highlight women’s safety. Having researched the Soroptimists, the Youth Worker felt that the Girls Group in Bexhill would benefit from the experience and guidance of our members.
A Tunbridge Wells club member who has experience of working in local schools, responded to the Youth Worker’s request for support. It was agreed that we would facilitate a round-table discussion with the girls, centred on the two questions from SITWD’s Listening Project:
- What do you like about where you live?
- What ideas do you have about what could be improved?
The aim of these questions was to help the girls recognise that they have a voice and that their opinions are valued.
Given the distance between Tunbridge Wells and Bexhill, we approached the Eastbourne Club for support, as they are better positioned to provide any follow-up work. A member kindly agreed to participate.
We attended a club meeting at the beginning of February. Ten girls aged between 8-11 took part and all responded positively. They were engaged throughout the session. They reflected thoughtfully on the questions, shared their ideas confidently with the group, and listened respectfully to one another. The Youth Worker commented that “the girls clearly felt heard.”
The discussion also generated several constructive suggestions from the girls for future activities and projects, providing valuable insight for the Youth Workers.
Tunbridge Wells collaborates with Visual Artist to promote action on safety and justice.
Club members from Tunbridge Wells began working with visual artist Emma Smith in 2024. The partnership started with online discussion and continued in person at a club meeting, focussing on concerns raised through our Spotlight on Safety survey. Key themes included personal safety, night-time travel, and the need for statutory training in responding to domestic abuse.
Club members attended the launch of Emma’s new installation where they viewed two panels shaped by these conversations. The artwork calls for action on safety and justice.
Emma Smith’s exhibition, Making Language, will be on display at The Amelia Scott, Royal Tunbridge Wells, from 10 January to 12 April 2026. The exhibition explores how language shapes justice and highlights the gap between human rights and lived experience, while imagining fairer futures.
Created in collaboration with community organisations across Kent, including Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN), Gillingham Street Angels, Family Action Medway Pregnancy to Three, Soroptimist International Tunbridge Wells & District, and Professor of Law Diamond Ashiagbor (University of Birmingham) this work draws inspiration from Amelia Scott’s fight for equality, historic texts such as Textus Roffensis, (a medieval manuscript relating to English law and identity compiled around 1122–1124 and held in Rochester Cathedral in Kent, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The exhibition asks: Who makes the laws we live by, and how do they shape everyday life? It presents proposals for future justice as debossed texts on paper, designed to be illuminated when each statement becomes reality.
Commissioned by The Amelia Scott and funded by Arts Council England, Making Language invites visitors to pause, reflect, and consider how justice and equality can be realised in everyday life.
TUNBRIDGE WELLS SOROPTIMISTS DISPLAY THEIR WORK IN THE CIVIC CENTRE
The Soroptimists of Tunbridge Wells & District have a proud history of campaigning for the safety of women and girls. A few years ago, club members worked alongside our MP on the ‘Protection from Sex-based Harassment in Public Act’ bill, which is due to due to be enacted in April.
To showcase Soroptimists and draw people’s attention to the work the club does locally, we mounted a display at the local civic centre during the 2025 16-Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. The display outlined the work of Soroptimists internationally, nationally, and locally, showed VAWG-related statistics and provided details of the organisations active in the field, either as campaigners or supporters of victims.
A different statistic was shown on each day of the campaign which involved a club member in making the change over on each of the 16 days. The facts we provided can be found elsewhere in this website under Projects and Activities
The group also selected items to be exhibited which they felt were representative of the Soroptimist movement’s development since 1921 and the achievements of the club since it was formed in 1946. The items were in 5 separate displays, and an audio commentary was written and recorded for each by club members which gave background information about each of them.
Our MP Mike Martin visited the exhibition and issued a press release which appeared in the local press and his visit was featured in his monthly newsletter to his constituents.
‘It was an honour to visit the Soroptimists of Tunbridge Wells & District’s powerful display. The Soroptimists have been leading the charge in our fight to make both Tunbridge Wells and the wider world safer for women and girls. Their organisation played an instrumental part in my predecessor Greg Clark’s Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act and have worked with me to set up Safe Havens for women and girls in Tunbridge Wells.
(Mike Martin MP)’
Tunbridge Wells and District Soroptimists raise funds for Ukrainian Children
Club members have been raising funds to support children in Ukraine whose education has been disrupted by the ongoing war with Russia.
Several club members gathered to produce handcrafted fabric ‘sunflowers’ which were then used to create brooches, hairbands, and other products. Two coffee shops – Piccolo Cafe in Wadhurst and Buy The Weigh in Ticehurst – kindly agreed to offer these items to their customers in return for donations, and to collect donations on behalf of the club.
This fundraising project raised a total of £300, and in January 2026 the club was pleased to be able to donate this amount to ‘Theirworld’ charity, a global children’s charity dedicated to ending the global education crisis and unleashing the potential of future generations. This is to be used specifically towards the cost of providing computers and equipment to schoolchildren in Kyiv & elsewhere in Ukraine.