Skip links

Purple Community Fund

Purple Community Fund

in Tags
What is the Purple Community Fund? It's a charity that helps children and families in the Philippines.  The children can go to school, the parents can earn money to keep their families. The Purple Community Fund was set up by Jane Walker MBE.  She saw children scavenging in rubbish dumps -looking for things to take home and use or sell - when she visited Manila.  She wanted to do something to make their lives better.  So she started a school in a warehouse at the dumpsite for the children.  They needed to learn everything - not only to read and write, but also basic living and social skills. How does it work? The parents agreed to send their children to the school because the children were given food credits to take home.  The parents were able to use the vouchers to buy food every week. 
What’s nice about sending a newsletter?

What’s nice about sending a newsletter?

in
What's nice about sending a newsletter?  Getting news back!  So here's some of the news we got back News from young women we have helped to make an educational trip Emma had a successful visit to China and is coming to tell us about it in September.  But we will, have to wait for a report from Kelda – her trip has had to be postponed for a year because of the pandemic.  Fingers crossed it will work next year, Kelda! News from women who deserve our thanks and congratulations Jabeen of Shifa deserves hearty thanks from us all because she has continued to work throughout the pandemic as a health link worker.  She represents the many whose names we do not know. And congratulations are due to our newest member, Anne, who has successfully completed her course of study. News from charities close to
Women, Water and Leadership

Women, Water and Leadership

in Tags
Women, Water and Leadership - The Soroptimist International President's Appeal 2017-19 Soroptimists are all about Women and Leadership.  But why Water? Because water is vital - without a regular and clean supply, making things better for people is tough. The 2017-19 Soroptimist President, Mariet Verhoef-Cohen is committed to enabling women to help their communities.  She knows that if you help women to  be leaders in their community, you can help everyone to improve.  And she saw that a project in which women are helped to give their community a good water supply would give good results.   So for the two years of her presidency, Mariet championed the Women, Water and Leadership project.    Soroptimist Cooperation can achieve a lot! Many Soroptimist International Clubs around the world helped to raise the money needed to run this project in several different countries.  Some Clubs were very active
Love Parks Week – 12-18 July 2020

Love Parks Week – 12-18 July 2020

in Tags
Love Parks Week, 12-18 July 2020 This is a great time to visit your local park, but not forgetting the social distancing that is so important now.  Woking Park is close to the centre and easy to pop into before or after shopping.  It's nice to take a turn after visiting the swimming pool or the Leisure Centre. Soroptimist Bench When you go, look out for the Soroptimist Bench.  We gave the bench to Woking Park to celebrate our Pearl Anniversary in 2006.  It's in a peaceful spot overlooking the open space of the lawn - really good for a quiet moment of meditation before you go back to work.  Really good for one's mental health. Our photo shows Jackie Theobald, Rozanne Rose and Anne Ansell in Woking Park.  It was taken during the presentation ceremony. Trees please! We must never forget how important trees
Do I have to look perfect?

Do I have to look perfect?

in Tags
How does body image affect you? We have been discussing body image in our Club.  We wanted to explore how we form our ideas about how we look.  We also talked about whether body image affects mental health.  We think body image is not only a big issue for girls and young women but for women throughout their lives.  Do you agree? Girlguiding's annual Girls' Attitudes survey backs up our view about young girls.  This year's report will come out soon but The Guardian wrote about some of the results on 27 August 2020: "A third of girls and young women will not post selfies online without using a filter or app to change their appearance, while a similar proportion have deleted photos with too few “likes” or comments, research has found. About half regularly alter their photos to enhance their appearance online and “find
Covid-19 effects – Survey

Covid-19 effects – Survey

in

Covid-19 Covid-19 is affecting absolutely everything in our lives at the moment.   Work is ongoing to assess these effects in many areas – mental and physical health, poverty, education are just a few examples. We have learned about a new survey to look at a very specific aspect. Survey Dr Shona Minson is a researcher at the Oxford Law Faculty.  She has explored the status of the children of prisoners in English law.  She has also engaged directly with children and their carers to explore how their particular situation affects their development. It can be difficult for the children of female prisoners to see their parent.  There are few prisons for women in the UK and travel can be long and costly.  For more information about this, go to  our page on Women in Prison. Dr Minson is now doing a survey on the effects

Healthwatch Surrey

Healthwatch Surrey

in Tags

COVID-19 Experiences Flyer COVID-19 Healthwatch Surrey particularly want the users of health and care services to tell them about their experience in relation to COVID-19 (coronavirus). You might want to tell Healthwatch Surrey about your experience of dealing with cancer, or mental health, or having a baby for example.  Just go to the Healthwatch Surrey website and select ‘Your Views’.  A page will open and you can tell your story (https://www.healthwatchsurrey.co.uk/your-views/share-your-experiences/), The Healthwatch Surrey website also has a wealth of other information. Discover more about what we’ve been up to lately in our Club News page. For more about our regular projects and activities, go to our Soroptimist Work pages.

Giving to caring charities

Giving to caring charities

in Tags

Walk the Walk – helping breast cancer victims   In November 2020, we helped local reast Cancer charity ‘ Walk the Walk’  to raise £6,000 by taking part in a virtual balloon race across the Serengeti. Look out for our ‘Soroptimist Woking’ balloons flying high over the Serengeti.      Surrey Young Carers In May, Woking Lions told us that young carers desperately needed laptops to help them with schooling at home during the Covid-19 crisis, so we made a donation.  We were delighted that the money helped two brave youngsters to keep up their schoolwork despite the extra burdens they now have.  At the time, Natallie Hoare, Fundraising Manager of Action for Carers Surrey, told us “The laptops you helped us to provide have made doing school work at home easier  – they also let them take part in some Zoom social events.” Update

News from Our Friendship Links

News from Our Friendship Links

in

Friendship brings results! Our Friendship Clubs in South Africa are very active.  We, along with the other Soroptimist International Clubs in Southern England, have  cooperated with them for many years.  We have all gained a great deal from these links. First we supported a house for AIDS orphans in Mamelodi, SA.  That project has now come to an end. Now, Southern England Region Soroptimists are working with SI Pretoria-Tshwane on the Volunteer Intern Project (VIP).    Under the VIP, two young women volunteers from the local area are being funded to work in an educational environment in Atteridgeville.  The young women are getting  valuable experience and the school benefits too. SI Durban, our other Friendship Link in South Africa,  won the National Federation’s ‘Photo of the Month’ competition in April with the wonderful image –  the feature photo of this post and reproduced below. We

Books, books books

Books, books books

in
Some of our favourite events are the book sales we hold in Andy’s Community Cafe in Woking. They are an occasion for Soroptimists to get together for a chat – about life as well as books – in a relaxed atmosphere with a great cup of coffee. It’s a change from the more serious atmosphere of our business meetings and larger fundraisers. So much so that it’s hard to believe we are there for a serious purpose. This time we were raising money for Shine Surrey, President Carolyn’s chosen charity. There were many enthusiastic readers among the visitors to the Cafe and we made £155 for Shine Surrey. The charity will use the funds for outings and equipment. Thanks to Helen at St Andrew’s Church for allowing us to hold the book sale in the Cafe. And to Kelvin of That’s TV Surrey for the