After our recent AGM Soroptimist International Winchester club is pleased to say it has successfully funded donations to local charities in the area.
Since our Christmas fundraising events we have taken a stand at the Tesco Winnall check out area and received passing support from shoppers over the International Women’s Day weekend of 8 March. We are grateful to Tesco for their support.
The club continues to support the Winchester women/girls rugby and are pleased to announce we will be supplying some new coats for the teams this season. Members also attended their Ladies lunch on 21 March and were able to interest several ladies in our projects. We were also fortunate to meet Danny Chambers MP and hope to work with him and Winchester City Council in domestic abuse campaigns on a continuing basis.
We were lucky enough to get a slot at the Winchester City Council run car boot sale at the end of March which helped finalise our funds for the year. 
Finally we must also thank Rick Stein of Winchester for donating over £500 through their selling of the Winchester Pudding where they commit to donate to us through sales.
We made donations of £200 each to Trinity Services and the Womens Refuge managed by STOP Domestic Abuse, £100 to the Winchester Beacon.
The club also supports the LendwithCare Microfinance programme and continues to support women internationally with projects on a year round basis.
Julie Blackwell, Treasurer, said, ‘We are delighted to make donations twice a year, both of gifts and money, at Christmas and at our AGM. When at our events it also gives us the opportunity to talk about our organisation and create awareness. We are grateful to our supporters and hope to continue working with our chosen charities.’
Soroptimist International is a global women’s organisation and has consultative status at the United Nations and supports many of the international events relating to UN Women and special days. The work that members do in their clubs both locally and internationally, is reported to the UN which uses the data to help form a picture of world situations where resources are required.
If you are interested in finding out more or considering membership, please contact winchestersoroptimists@gmail.com