Projects
Each club identifies the needs of its community, then establishes specific projects to address these needs. All SI projects relate to one or more of the six Programme Focus Areas: Economic and Social Development, Education, Environment, Health, Human Rights and the Status of Women, and International Goodwill and Understanding. The projects listed below include some of the local and international issues we research and support in SI Gosport, Fareham and District:
Women’s Refuge
We support the local Women’s Refuges, including collecting toiletries for new arrivals and arranging a summer outing for the families to a local country park. Several members are on the Fareham and Gosport Family Aid (FGFA) Management Committee. This has been an on-going project for a number of years, but in 2003 we gave them £5,000 towards providing an all-weather play area for the children.
Contact the Elderly
A tea party for the local (Fareham and Southampton) Contact the Elderly groups is held each summer, usually at Hill Head. One club member is the local organiser for the Fareham and Gosport group: if anyone would like to know more or help as a driver once a month or act as an hostess once a year then please make contact through this site.
Lean Lunch for SI Quadrennial Project
We held the first Lean Lunch event in 2004 as a joint venture with other local Soroptimist clubs and raised £300. Successor events were held in support of Project Independence at the same venue, but run by SI Southampton and then SI Chichester clubs.
The event was again organised by SI Gosport and Fareham in 2008, for the new quadrennial Project SIerra, with a speaker from our strategic partner in the project, Hope and Homes for Children.
Other fund-raising
We hold other fund-raising events, such as a BBQ and quiz night annually, a strawberry tea in the summer of 2008 and in February 2009 a wine-tasting evening.
President’s charity
We support the President’s chosen charity, which in 2008-09 was the Hampshire Air Ambuance. For the current club year 2009-10 our President has chosen the Alzheimers Society, in addition to supporting the SI quadrennial appeal, Project SIerra.
Regional projects
The club makes a valuable contribution to the regional efforts on such projects as conducting a rail safety survey, lobbying for landmine action and collating statistics on the number of volunteer hours done by our members. Potential additional fund-raising will be needed this year to support one house for 11 children in Mamelodi village for orphaned and abused children in our regional Friendship Link of SI South Africa - other regional projects are also being considered, which we would play our part in supporting.
Lobbying
We also support other lobbying actions, from Fairtrade week to Breakthrough Breast Cancer.