Friendship News from SI Brisbane South Inc.
I will outline our activities since the last newsletter mid year. I can’t believe how quickly the months pass. Our lives just seem to get busier and busier. Oh well, it stops us from growing old!
Our membership stands at 31 and we have been successful in recruiting several new members this year. It is always pleasing to welcome new women with varied backgrounds and ideas to complement our existing membership. Our President, Rhonda Ekberg has had the privilege of inducting new members at each meeting since she took office mid year. We won’t want Rhonda to vacate for quite a while at that rate! Rhonda’s work circumstances will decide if she is able to continue in 2009 as her start as President was delayed by her overseas travels.
A Conference organised by Muslim Women was held at Government House and we were represented by one of our members. There were about 100 women in attendance who listened to 16 speakers throughout the day. Brisbane’s Muslim community is growing as quite a few refugee families follow their teachings.
At our Dinner Meeting in August we were enlightened of the work carried out by Crimestoppers from our Guest Speaker. Crimestoppers originated in America and was set up to assist Police in the solving of crimes. It is not part of the Police service and is funded independently
Our next Dinner Meeting was in October when the Guest Speaker was Leigh Ellwood-Brown, the incoming President of SISWP. Leigh is always easy to listen to as she has a wealth of knowledge about Soroptimism and has been a representative on Australian Womens Coalition for some years. Leigh has been proactive with the All China Womens Federation (I think that is their title) and has visited China to promote Soroptimist International.
Our club supported the Pine Rivers club when they held an Art Auction some time ago with works supplied by children from orphanages in Russia. Art supplies were organised to send to these children to assist them with their talents, and SIBS donated $150 to have these supplies sent to the Russian children.
We decided to once again support our country cousins by organising hampers to be delivered to them. The substantial hampers included food items, some Christmas goodies, some practical toiletries and a few items to pamper the women in The Bush as we like to call it. They were tied with ribbon with a lovely message to show them that their city cousins were thinking of them.
We have been involved with Southside Education (a girl’s school that provides education for teenagers who for many reasons do not fit into the normal education system) for some years. The community donates many items of clothing and household items to the school. Some of our members sort these contributions and regularly organise Garage Sales at the school on a Saturday morning. The funds are greatly appreciated. We have recently provided items to assist the girls when they do their formal education tests. These are called Core Skills Packs and each year the students need specific items to enable them to complete their tests.
A big source of fundraising for us is the Sausage Sizzles that we “man” at a local hardware store. These Sausage Sizzles are sought after by lots of community organization and we have been fortunate enough to have been allocated some days this year for our turn. We always have support from our Soroptimisters on these occasions.
Each month we have Ladies who Lunch - a pleasant time to get together for a meal as our commitments permit. They are organised by whoever puts their hand up and we try different restaurants and cafes each time. We try to vary the days of the week to allow all members the opportunity to attend.
Members collected clothing and household items for victims of a house fire in a local suburb. We continue to support a local women’s refuge with toiletry bags as well as some funding. Our club has been successful in sourcing sewing machines for distribution to women attending the Romero Centre, a support centre for refugee families. One of our members tutors in English at the centre and another minds children while the women are receiving the services the centre has on offer.
President Rhonda presented Joanna Sim from Runcorn State High School with a Bursary. Joanna was selected by the school as a disadvantaged but most worthy person in need of the funding to continue her education.
Our annual Fashion Parade held on 30 August was once again a great success and fun day. A light luncheon is followed by the parade of fashions, the speaker from our recipient of funds, RSPCA, and the conducting of our multi-draw raffle. The RSPCA is allocating the funds to a project for young people who have had a history with animal cruelty. The project teaches the young people how to interact with animals and the outcomes to date have been encouraging.
Dori Holmer from SI Sacramento visited us and provided some information about SI activities at club and Region level particularly re the Trafficking problem. SI Sacramento is 40 years old, has 22 members (some of whom were charter members) and a very youthful President. Dori’s club, and nine other SI clubs in her Region, are advocating to raise $US4m for a ‘safety house’ to be built for trafficked women. Additionally the two SI Regions around Sacramento are working with other organisations towards the establishment of an 80-bed facility to house prostitutes and their children.
The club has made donations to Project Sierra ($500) and TADQ ($250). TADQ stands for Technical Aid to the Disabled, Queensland and is an organization of volunteers with skills to design and manufacture individual items for disabled people to make their life more enjoyable. The President’s Appeal this year is for the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Our club will donate $100 to be added to the donations collected from individual members at our December meeting. Donations of soft toys for a local project, SKIP, to go with their hampers was made recently, much to the joy of the member who had them stored in her spare room!
As our recent Region Meeting it was pleasing to see some of our newer members in attendance. This gives them a look at the bigger picture of SI and is a good venue to network with members from other clubs. Our club is always well represented at Region Meetings.
One of our members was able to attend the 25th Birthday celebrations of SI Noumea. She reported that the Noumea club were all French women and they have projects to assist women in the villages and also women in prison. SI Noumea have combined with SI Taupo (NZ) and SI Gold Coast (Qld) on a project in the Solomon Islands.I am off to a planning meeting for 2009 SIBS activities now and I would like to thank all our Friendship Link clubs for their correspondence this year and wish them a safe, healthy and enjoyable Festive Season that is fast approaching.
Desley Blanch,
Friendship Link Co-ordinator