NEWSLETTER
of Soroptimist International of South East England

FEBRUARY 2008

IN THIS ISSUE:

  • From the Region President
  • Club Reports
    • Gravesend
    • Haywards Heath
    • Medway Towns
    • Sevenoaks
  • Programme Action Report
  • Obituary
  • Diary dates
  • UKPAC Study Day

FROM THE REGION PRESIDENT


angela howe I was pleased to get my first Regional meeting off to a fine start with Anne McDonald giving us such a good insight into Project Sierra. It is especially nice to be able to say that the Region has already donated £1,000 to the project. Let’s try to match that, and more, over the course of the next year.

The afternoon of the February meeting will give us the chance to discuss all sorts of membership issues to set us on the right course for the future. In June we will be hosting the Federation Programme Action Road Show, which should interest everyone.

Details of the proposed Region Conference in April are yet to be finalised – but you should hear more about this soon.

I am hoping to visit every Club as the season gets under way. I have already managed to show my ignorance at the Gravesend quiz and will probably do this again in Ashford. I am booked to come to at least two dinners shortly – so I look forward to those events.

Please get in touch if you want any information – if I don’t know I’m sure I know a woman who does! Best wishes to everybody.

Angela Howe

Medway Awards Bursary

Soroptimist International Medway Towns is committed each year to offer a bursary to a mature, female student at the University of Kent at Medway in order to make it easier for her to return to employment after a career break or to improve her chances of employment or advancement. This year the bursary went to Lisa Davies from Bearsted in Maidstone who is attending a three year course in Music Technology, with the intention of becoming a full time lecturer in music. In keeping with the Soroptimist objective to raise the status of women worldwide Medway Club were pleased to be able to help Lisa succeed in what she describes as a male dominated business. “I hope that my lecturing in the subject will encourage the female students and allow them to see that it is possible for a female musician to play at professional level and not be discouraged by the male dominance in general in the music industry” Lisa said. Lisa has already used some of the £1,000 she received to buy equipment so that she is able to study more at home.

The cheque was presented to Lisa at SI Medway’s President’s lunch in October, which was held in order to raise funds for the President’s chosen charity, the Fragile X Society. Fragile X is the most common known cause of inherited learning disability or mental handicap. £290 was raised for this worthwhile society which provides support and information and to raise awareness of this little known condition – unfortunately even GPs often have no knowledge of it. “We provide access to full information about the syndrome including the latest medical, psychological and educational research findings because with a fuller understanding of the condition, parents can be far more constructive and effective in helping their children to reach their full potential” says Lynne Zwink who helps to run the society. Other fund raising events will be held to raise money and a cheque for the total will be presented in April

Wanda Wright

Support for Children’s Hospice

S I of Haywards Heath raised £500 for The Chestnut Tree Children's Hospice near Arundel the only children's hospice in Sussex from the fashion show which they held in Ditchling Village Hall on September 28th.
They also joined in the annual procession for The Independent State of Cuckfield raising £200 for local charities and dressed a tree in Cuckfield church, dressing the Soroptimist tree in blue and yellow for the Church and
Children's Society.

Eva Hudson

Wasn’t that a Pip?

At the outset of her year, President Diane of SI Gravesend declared: ”Soroptimists should have fun too”…and we did! Outings, visits, a pamper evening, simple suppers in members’ homes, a charity lunch and dinner at Diane’s home, etc., were interspersed with the serious side of our raison d’etre and programme action work, and do you know what – we’ve raised as much for worthy causes as in any previous year. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

However one looks at it, 2007 was a fun year that had its grand finale at our Christmas Social Evening in December in which an all-star cast presented Sleeping Beauty, a potted panto that had the audience holding their sides as our normally seriously committed Soroptimist sisters ad-libbed like mad and put on a spectacle that was a sight to behold. Will we ever see them in the same light again? Nora Clout of Weston-super-Mare Club wrote the script for the original panto 18 years ago, and it was adapted for our club by Betty Martin. Taking part were Sheila Knight, Pamela Armitage, Betty Martin, Pamela Debnam, Naresh Katnoria and Surin Singh with Diane Steltner as prompter of the traditional audience participation of hisses, boos and hoorays! Members also joined in karaoke singing, a name the places and faces quiz and enjoyed gluwein, soft drinks and seasonal comestibles. A prize draw realized upwards of £60 for the President’s charities, The Stroke Association and Darent Valley Hospital.

However, they do get down to business too

Gravesend’s immediate past president Farida Usman, who chairs the Kent Muslim Women’s Group addressed a workshop at the Federation Conference on the club’s involvement in ethnic community projects and subsequently gave a talk on the Islamic way of life to Medway Club.

A BOGOF (Buy One Get one Free) box is now provided at every club meeting to collect donations of toothpaste, toiletries, nappies, teabags, coffee, cereals, tinned food, etc., for local women’s refuges.

Funds continue to be raised in a variety of ways: Sheila Knight achieved £112 from the sale of her home made jams, a silent auction raised £270 and a bric-a-brac stall at the local market took £150. The club’s healthy eating recipe book, produced in conjunction with a local school, was sold at Federation Conference alongside greetings cards designed and made by Ann Dix. “Healthy, Tempting, Tasty” is also on sale on eBay priced £4 including postage and package.

Twenty-six members attended a social dinner at Mid Kent Golf Club in December during which a collection for the international president's 2007 appeal realized £280, while a highly successful fun quiz evening (well, they called it fun – the players had another word for it!) raised £570 in support of our Friendship Link Club in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The quiz was organized by two members, Sheila Knight and Pam Debnam and their husbands Keith and Colin.

Isobel Kesby

Deck the Tree with Blue and Yellow

Sevenoaks Soroptimists were delighted when they received membership inquiries after exhibiting a beautifully decorated tree in a parish church.

The tree was the brainchild of former President Kate York who put up the tree in her local church, St Mary’s Church, Westerham, which was celebrating a festival of Christmas

President Anne Fleetwood went along to help give out leaflets while visitors admired the tree.

She said: “Kate produced a beautiful tree decorated with silver baubles with the Soroptimist logo, blue and yellow bows, plus silver twinkling lights. Underneath were some membership leaflets which have produced two enquiries so far and certainly helped to promote Soroptimism."

The tree was also used at the Sevenoaks’ group’s Christmas party at their meeting place at the Rockdale Centre to which elderly residents’ representatives were special guests. Everyone also enjoyed a concert given by hand bell ringers during the evening.

Janet Weston

Project Sierra

Some 90 Soroptimists from Clubs around the London area were invited to the Home Office on 23rd January to hear Jacqui Smith, tell us about how she came to be Home Secretary. We were able to pose questions, having first submitted them. No chance of catching the Secretary out! We were also addressed by the Federation Project Liaison for Project Sierra, Anne McDonald. The evening was organized by Kingston-upon-Thames Club and they announced that they expected to be able to donate about £400 to Project Sierra as a result of the event Anne urged us all to send funds raised for the project to Federation Office in Stockport as soon as possible after they were collected so that they could be utilized promptly. Programme Action Officer Ann Greenfield has given us some special dates (see page 5) that we might like to mark by doing something special. I would like to add another.—27th April—Sierra Leone’s National Day.

Valerie Boswell

PROGRAMME ACTION

Programme Focus Reports

Submitting reports and searching the database couldn’t be simpler as I discovered this afternoon when I sat down at my computer to send in some reports as I had promised. This was a task I had been putting off for some time now and I am sure that once you have taken the plunge you will find it easy too. Having submitted these five reports, I decided to have a look at the database. By entering key words (and dates) you can find reports on projects to do with that topic. Before I left the database I typed in the name of our region and up came all the reports sent in from our region during that period.

Online reporting will be the focus for the Programme Action meeting on the 9th February. My challenge is that all clubs in the Region send in at least one Report online before the end of the club year in April.

____________


March is a heavy month for dates and special days – too many for any one club to mark them all. Choose just one or perhaps two and do something really special.

25th February – 9th March Fairtrade Fortnight
Clubs have been emailed the 40-page pack of ideas
From Fairtrade
1st March Saturday of Service
8th March International Women’s Day
22nd March World Water Day
Ideas in the latest Soroptimist News

And later in the year:
15th May International Day of Families
Suggested as a day for fundraising for Project Sierra
5th June World Environment Day
Ideas on ways to reduce CO2 in the Soroptimist News

Ann Greenfield

Obituary

The Ashford Founder President, Betty Geering sadly died in January at the age of 88.  She was founder President from 1964-1966 and always took an  interest in the Club and its activities.  She attended Conferences regularly and until her last illness had hoped to go to Barbados.  She came to Plauen on our last trip to our Friendship Link and was a wonderful ambassador both for our Club and Soroptimism world wide. She was a very gracious lady who will be greatly missed.

Janis Day

Hastings

Printing was already in progress when I received a photograph from Brenda Blythe of SI Hastings, picturing Brenda, a beautiful doll made by her and me I won the doll at the September Region Meeting where it was being raffled to raise money for Project Sierra.

Brenda’s letter went on to say “Hastings is slowly getting a few new members and hopefully we’ll be able to send a photo article soon”.
There was also news of Sarah our Region Grant of Friendship visitor who has now returned to her native Kenya, “Sarah enjoyed her stay and she was OK at the beginning of January.” Thank you Brenda for this

Editor

Diary dates—2008

28th March Beckenham—International Evening. Bencurtis Park. 7.00 for 7.30 p.m. Contact Janet Tibbalds
7th April Beckenham—Talk by Jackie Paling on her work around the world. Beckenham Methodist Church. 7.30 for 7.45 p.m. Contact Dinah Scudder
28th June SEE Region AGM— Ramada Jarvis, Pembury
5th July UKPAC Study Day, “Edu-k-shun”, University of Lancaster
20th September SEE Region Meeting, Ramada Jarvis, Pembury
27th October-
2nd November SIGBI Federation Conference, Barbados “Be bold, think big, make a difference”

“Edu-k-shun!”
5th July 2008 UKPAC Study Day at the University of Lancaster

This year’s Study Day is designed to look at the many barriers that exist to education for women of all ages, cultures and creeds

A full day with Keynote Speakers; Break Out Sessions:

Dress for Success, London (helping women from economic dependence to economic independence)
Barriers to Education (Why aren’t you in school today?)
Water for Kids (Safe drinking water for the first time)
University of the Third Age (A success story of our times. Why is it relevant?)
Building Bridges, Pendle (Delivering community integration education programmes)
Osteoporosis (Drugs, side effects and complications)

Registration Fee £53 or
Early Bird by 1st May £45

Details on UKPAC Website www.soroptimist-ukpac.org
or from your Club Programme Action Officer

The Region Newsletter is edited by Valerie Boswell. See Region Directory for contact details.

The Newsletter is published on the Region Website www.soroptimist-gbi-see.org.uk