BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE SPOONS During August 2013 a newspaper article headline was ‘Women who fear being forced to marry abroad told to hide spoon in underwear ‘(Guardian). In July 2015 the charity Karma Nirvana launched their Spoon Lapel Badge initiative to raise awareness of the issues affecting women and girls who are being forced to marry. Call handlers at Karma Nirvana suggest to girls, as a last resort, to put spoons in knickers, providing an opportunity to be taken aside when the security alarm sounds and spoken to in a private room.  This is to avoid them finding themselves in the middle of nowhere abroad being forced into marriage without any sort of help.  Also Karma Nirvana is engaged in raising girls’ and boys’ awareness in schools.  The latter is an ongoing process. Karma Nirvana has trained over half of the 43

What an amazing turn out for the annual DIVA walk (Don’t Ignore violence or Abuse) Organised by North Tyneside as part of their ‘Domestic Abuse Awareness Week’ supported by Unison, Waves, Harbour and Northumberland Domestic Abuse Services. http://www.nda.services/ http://www.myharbour.org.uk/

   

  The BBC calls Prison, My Parents and Me a “groundbreaking” programme, and I suppose they are right about this Children in Need special. I don’t think, at any rate, I’ve seen much coverage of the devastating impact having a parent – or, more rarely, both parents – in prison has on a child, though you could argue you don’t need to sit through an hour of television to work that one out. The statistics offered up were devastating too; a very high proportion of jailbirds who are cut off from their families tend to reoffend. About 100,000 British children have one or both parents serving time (plus a few more paying back their debts to society in the company of their children in mother-and-baby units – a more dismal start in life it is difficult to envisage). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1MPvxhymvXnpCDJqPsgkKy6/prison-my-parents-and-me-where-can-i-find-support

Waiting for Helen Sharman - First British Astronaut and female too! New Soroptimist Sister Our President Anne & Northern Region President Elect Linda. Northern Region Past President Suzanne Brown - what a great year! Welcome to our new Northern Region President Jane Inman. Best wishes for a successful year. SI Cockermouth ladies celebrating at Jane's party. We made it!! Pink parasols for everyone to see at conference!! Children's art competition. Children's art from SI Malta. New Soroptimist Sister. Sunny times. Our hand knitted poppies were admired by all. More pink. Conference. Mum Pat and soon to be Soroptimist daughter, Susie, Amazing Maltese dancers.

   

Enjoying our first taste of Maltese artisanal foods caught fresh from the ocean.

Checking out the local scene before arriving in Malta for The Soroptimist International conference.