International President’s Appeal – December 10th

Soroptimist International President , Maureen Maguire, who became SI President in January 2022, has launched her International President’s Appeal, “Opening Doors to a Bright Future”.

The objectives of this appeal are to:

• Provide access to education in all its forms for disadvantaged and marginalised women and girls.
• Provide education to women and girls in a safe, friendly, and stimulating environment where there is equality of opportunity and support for all.
• Develop mentoring programmes that encourage confidence, self-esteem and increase the participation of women and girls in society and in decision-making.
• Increase access to information, educational resources, and services, to empower women and girls to make informed life-choices.

Projects will be established in all five Soroptimist Federations.

International President’s Appeal – Update 3 January 2023

The fourth Soroptimist International President’s Appeal project has been selected within the SIGBI Federation, it is with an organisation called Restore a Sense of I Can (RSC) which is a non-profit organization working, in part, on the development and support of technology clubs in schools, tertiary institutions and communities throughout the Caribbean.    RSC’s model is based on public and private sector partnerships using technology to achieve common goals. The vision is to have a common digital education community supporting each other’s goals, enabling greater individual achievement with existing resources.

This program proposes to train (online) 100 Women and Girls from across three countries in the Caribbean (Trinidad & Tobago, St. Vincent & The Grenadines and Grenada) in basic Digital Technology and then further train 25 of the participants from Trinidad & Tobago with hands-on in-person sessions.   All participants will be certified by RSC and further supplemented by an IBM Skills Build Certificate.

The objective is to position these women and girls so that they can access the opportunities that exist in the digital economy in a safe and secure manner.    A train-the-trainer model for 5 people and the formation of a Tech Club will enhance the sustainability of the project.    An additional course has also been developed to assist the migrants from Venezuela to learn English.

The project will be run as a Carbon Zero initiative as each participant with be required to plant a tree for Carbon Sequestration based on their carbon emissions as a result of the program.    The project will start 1 January 2023 and will run until 31 July 2023

Please do encourage your club members to get involved, raise awareness and raise funds to support this initiative. Any funds that you do raise should be sent to SIGBI who will send it on to the Appeal. And don’t forget that you can also purchase the pin (details below).

For further information about the project: Opening Doors to a Bright Future – fourth project further information – 3 January 2023.

International President’s Appeal – Update 28 November 2022

The day in December when all clubs traditionally focus on the International President’s Appeal is fast approaching (10th December 2022). Have you got something planned? I would like to encourage you to do some fundraising if possible, for this excellent initiative.

Please buy a broach, they are £25 plus P&P with some of the cost going to the project. The design is based on a sunrise and the ‘Opening Doors’ logo. To purchase a broach please contact Hilary Laidler at hilary.laidler@icloud.com. Payment by PayPal or bank transfer please.

International President’s Appeal – Update 10 November 2022

Case study from Cambodia

Chay Satan is single mother with an 11 year old daughter. She lives alone. She always struggles with financial support for her daily expenses and for her daughters education. Being a single mother and raising a daughter alone is not easy, but she never gives up because she wants her daughter to have a better future. Satan was actively engaged in the training program, now she has become a role model for other women in the community. She has a vegetable garden, but that only generated little income because of climate change. With the assistance from the project team, she was guided to create the other sources of income to support herself and her daughter’s education. The team have helped her to start a food and soft drink business with a micro loan start up fund and now her business runs smoothly because of her hard-work and commitment.

International President’s Appeal – Update 5 September 2022

SI International President’s Appeal – update

The first of our ‘family of Soroptimist’ projects is in Cambodia working in partnership with the Cambodian Community Dream Organization (CCDO). The programme was developed to run training sessions for young women in school to promote gender equality and women in leadership. We set a target of reaching 2,000 young women and within the first 6 months they have already reached 2438 women and girls.

The second project in our family, is now taking place in the Soroti District of Eastern Uganda. We are working with Rose Academies. The project seeks to remove barriers that keep vulnerable and oppressed children out of school, improving access to education and healthcare.

SI President Maureen will be speaking about these and the next projects at conference.

Please continue fund raising in your clubs to support these excellent projects. With your help together we can achieve to much more.

Read full details of the Appeal below:

• International President’s Appeal 2021-2022 “Opening Doors to a Bright Future” – launched 1 October 2021

You can read further information on the appeal here https://www.soroptimistinternational.org/openingdoors/ Member donations to Opening Doors to a Brighter Future will be transferred to Soroptimist International Foundation (registered in England and Wales 1194895) which has been set up to maximise opportunities for SI’s work around the world.