Soroptimist International

Great Britain& Ireland

Friendship Link Newsletter

Issue 30                                                  March 2008

 Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life.
–S.D. Gordon

Springtime is my favourite season of the year and as I write this letter the sun is shining and the daffodils are dancing in the breeze. I do hope you all had a very happy, peaceful Easter.

The establishing of new links are flourishing. I hope clubs are taking my advice and putting time and thought into Friendship Links before accepting or inviting clubs to join them.  Please think about how you could effectively use this wonderful commodity. Just having  committed and active Friendship Links can help so many clubs.

If the making or maintenance of Links is a bit daunting to you particularly if you are new to the role of co-ordinator please get in touch with me and I will assist you all I can.

From the amount of Registration Forms I have received by email I get the impression that this is a favourable method of sending them to me. It is also useful as if you save it on your computer, next year just update it, change the date and send it off. Many forms include a brief message regarding visits and projects wonderfully interesting but they were in fact too many to mention each one, I have therefore picked a few out at random. If you would like your project or visit reported on in the Friendship Link Newsletter please could you send it as an attachment – not too long please- it can then be simply cut and pasted on to the document.

Requests for Friendship Links

Club Projects

SI Kirkcaldy sent financial assistance to Jabalpur to help fund Pragya Primary School.

SI Maidstone purchased Kente Sashes produced by SI Accra woven with Soroptimist International wording on them, first used at Nottingham Conference 2006. SI Maidstone purchase these sashes andthe funds go to support the blind students at the University of ACCRA, Ghana, approximately 130 have been purchased so far.

SI Keighley has been working with their two Friendship Links SI The North Shore NZ and SI Pottstown USA on ideas regarding Trafficking.

SI Kettering continue to pay Kolkata South’s Capitation so they can use money for the Ghobiket Slum Project andhave recently agreed to support their “BeyondSchool – no child left behind” project.

SI London Mayfair - As readers of the Jan. 2008 Soroptimist News saw, San Fernando celebrated its 45^th anniversary on Nov. 23. 2007 with a picnic at La Vega estate;  As part of their 45^th anniversary work, the club are assisting a small school struggling in their work catering for slow learners.  Our joint project continues: last year we sent £150 (=TT$1800) which is matched by a similar sum from San Fernando.  Previously TT$1000 a term was given to 2 students.  This year it will be TT$600 a term.

Other projects in 2007 were tagging turtles as part of the Turtle Conservation Programme, & the end of their Impress for Success seminars, as many schools now run their own programmes after San Fernando started the ball rolling.   The club continues their long-standing support of the old people’s home Shangri-La, where Sandra Dieffenthaller is chairman of the Board. Alma Robbins SI London Mayfair

SI Llandudno & District - Have a joint project with S.I Belvedere – Moldavia Project. The aim is to raise funds to re equip the gynaecology department at the regionalhospital in Cantemir, Moldavia, to raise the standards and make it into a safe maternity and gynaecological institution. There is a third partner in this 4 year project, a club in Japan who has a friendship link with S.I. Belvedere. S.I. Llandudno agreed to contribute £400.00 per year over a 4 year period and 2 payments have been made. The 2^nd. payment was made when 6 members visited Vienna in early December 2007 andenjoyed a weekend of friendship, meeting Club members and being entertained by members of S.I. Belvedere as well as visiting several Christmas markets and sightseeing in Vienna.

Jane Lloyd Hughes, SI Llandudno

SI Sterling met up with SI Bad Wildungun and SI Kid Baltica and are planning a joint project together.

SI Lancaster and SI Cape of Good Hope have supported the Heideveld Project in Cape Town, initially a music therapy project to help traumatised children, now widening into Health Care Clinics. Members of SI Lancaster have visited the project. Maureen Daniels-Laing has just returned to Lancaster after working in the project as a volunteer for a few weeks.

SI Surulere is not limited to the procurement and subsequent donation of wheelchairs, callipers, clutches, educational supplies for the skills acquisition at vocational centres for physically challenged children and children with special needs. Our club also embarked on the roll back malaria project where insecticide treated nets were distributed to pregnant and nursing mothers at various hospitals and health centres in our community. Presently our club is focusing on the learning and educational needs of physically and mentally challenged children to this end we are embarking on equipping their vocational centres where projects have included but they are taught to make shoes, dresses, belts, cane chairs, trays, floor mops and a host of other arts and crafts items. We also intend to have a centre where these items made by them will be sold to the public and the profit ploughed back to the children.

Our desire is to make these children less dependent on their parents andsociety. In general, we want to instilin them the spirit of self worth and also teach them to know that there is ability in disability andthat they can also achieve like everybody else.  Nneka Chris-Asoluka, President SI Surulere, Nigeria  

SI Douglas  has worked in partnership with the Isle of Man Government’s Overseas Aid Committee on four Five O Projects since Five O was established 25 years ago,; our interest in Five O was raised when the scheme was presented to Conference. The concept of working with other organizations appealed to our delegation, and whilst standing behind Hilda Richardson (Past International President) we boldly invited her to visit the Island to address the various organisations on the island. She agreed and a meeting was called.  There were only four out of the five organizations present on the Island but a fair audience turned up and we held an interesting debate. The result was disappointing, however. One organisation thought itself too small to make a worthwhile contribution but several members offered to help in an individual capacity, and the other two did not consider themselves to be fundraising organizations. So SI Douglas went it alone.

The Isle of Man Government’s Overseas Aid Committee had just been formed with a remit that matched the objects of Five O so we decided to make an approach to see if the Committee would be prepared to meet us for GBP on what we would pledge. This was agreed and forms the same basis of al subsequent applications.

Naturally you can’t just knock on a Minister’s door and stand outside with a begging bowl. A lot of preliminary work has to be done to ensure the project meets the criteria and is a viable scheme. This is where we have to thank the various International and Federation Five O Coordinators who were able to supply all the information necessary to enable the preparation of a detailed financial and management appraisal for each of our projects.

The first project was situated in a village called Gacha, about 26km north of Dhaka.  Pre-primary school and sewing, tailoring and embroidery classes had already been running successfully. Our donation together with one from SI Penrith was used to build a Village Health Centre which now treats about 2,500 patients per year.

The second project was another domestic based programme which trains women in catering and pastry making, sewing and embroidery, housekeeping and good manners, child welfare and family planning, first aid, French language, management and economy and law relating to women’s rights and other necessary issues. Both in-house training and training in hotels, restaurants, private homes and companies is undertaken. Up to 85 trainees graduate each year. This project is now fully self supporting.

Then we travelled to Samoa.   The project was another domestic based project with students from outlying villages being taught in cooking and sewing, handicrafts, weaving, embroidery and tapa printing.   They sew school uniforms, girls and boys clothing, men’s suits and long sleeved shirts. Some students have to give up due to financial constraints but the project does help some by paying for raw materials.   If the students bring their own materials for processing they take the finished goods home for sale.   However, if the school provides the materials the sale money helps buy more materials.    The Douglas donation was used to buy materials.    One of our members actually visited the project after the Sydney Conference and her and her partner both came home with splendid outfits.

Finally, our current project is for an Education Project for Refugee Women and Homeless Girls in Tbilisi, Georgia.  (We did think it prudent to change the title slightly as the original referred to “careless girls”).    The refugee problem in Georgia is acute with many women having no chance of employment without some training so the project is fulfilling a desperate need.   The project has been gifted the use of a room at the localhospital and a Soroptimist doctor takes training in nursing skills and first aid.   Cookery and nutrition courses are taken in the hospital kitchen as well.    There is also a sewing shop which is now producing clothes for sale and is making a profit which is subsidizing other courses.   Some students attend the local college and are learning computing skills and languages.  Over 100 students have completed their courses and have found employment in care of the elderly and young children, nursing, dressmaking and computing, In all since the project has been established the employment rate of graduates stands at 98% , which is not a bad record.

SI Douglas has enjoyed its involvement in the various schemes, especially when we have made personal contact and when we receive updates on how the scheme is progressing.   I doubt if the Tiblisi Five O project will be our last one.

Joan Sherry, Link Club Coordinator, SI Douglas, Isle of Man

SI West Birmingham has had a link with SI West Betuwe in The Netherlands  for many years, but contact has been  limited and sporadic for some considerable time. When, therefore, SIWB received an invitation to their 35^thAnniversary Dinner in Beusichem on the 15 September 2007, as I am Friendship Links Co-ordinator and was concerned about this, I resolved to attend. Unfortunately, other engagements made it impossible for other members of SIWB to accompany me , but the encouraging emails from members at SI West Betuwe made me resolve to go anyway. I also received helpful advice from one of our older members  (Heather Higgins) who had visited many years ago. In view of the distance to travel, I took the opportunity to spend 24 hours in Amsterdam, where I  walked around and also packed in an Evening Concert at the Westerkerk and a Canal Trip before broaching the most efficient rail system to the West Betuwe  region.

The  SI Club itself is constituted like one of SIGBI’s Regions, consisting of members living in a number of rural small towns and villages  located  towards the south-east of the country, and nestling between rivers, dykes and canals in a Delta landscape. SI West Betuwe’s members, who number 26 at present, were unfailingly helpful and welcoming, insisting on  and arranging accommodation at a members’ home, and transporting me to and from the Dinner and my trains. The Anniversary Dinner venue, meal, and wines were exactly as the Club’s Charter Dinner 35 years ago. It was all delicious, elegant and beautifully served and I was told that it was just as good as it was 35 years ago.

The Ambassadress of Guatemala, to whom I was introduced, was the Guest of Honour and spoke very well in English and Dutch to the assembled company. Her country was benefiting from West Betuwe’s 2007 project to support midwife training for village women who assist at births. SI West Birmingham sent a donation with me towards this project. The Vice- President of the Dutch Union also spoke, and there was also comic entertainment from one of their members, who had been an actress. Two cheerful and competent young musicians, playing guitar and accordion, came round to the tables and played requests. They even found an English folk song for me !

The day after the Dinner, 2 members who spoke excellent English - one Health Professional and one retired Senior Officer in the Dutch Air Force- took me to a local Festival which celebrated the craft of designing and making headgear of all kinds. The weather was mild and sunny and the stalls, music, food and companionship were unforgettable, not to mention the hats! Some were fantastic and specially designed for  the Event and were great conversation pieces. It was altogether a memorable and most friendly weekend, indicating that the link with West Betuwe and West Birmingham is still important to both Clubs.

For me, the message for other Clubs world-wide is - if you have a relatively near Link that is in the doldrums, do not give up !  Make the effort - Go to an Event – Show goodwill - Share your experiences! 

Sarah Bookey, SI West Birmingham

Club Friendship Link Visits

SI Tyneside  at our 60th. club anniversary lunch we had 14 members from our Friendship clubs - 10 from SI.Jaeren, Norway, 3 from S.I. Hamilton and 1 from S.I. Gosport and Fareham. The three from Hamilton travelled down for the day and the others stayed the week-end. A welcome party was held in one of our member’s home and the Mayor of South Tyneside,Tracy Dixon gave an official welcome in our historic Town Hall. An interesting talk was given and refreshments were provided. Good fellowship was established with all links with all members eager to keep in touch. A warm invitation was extended from the President of Jaeren club to join them for their 35th. Anniversary ln 2009 which our members plan to do.

SI Falkirk’s visit to Nice

In October eight members, including our President Karen, set off for Nice to help consolidate the Auld Alliance of our two Clubs and Nice’s 75th Anniversary .Our link goes back over 20 years and so our Members were eager to renew the old friendships and make some new. Much to their delight some ” well kent ” faces from another friendship link from Bastia in Corsica were also there to share the fun of the celebrations. A few of the highlights were the visit to Monte Carlo, the wonderful dinners and the hair-raising coach trip to Menton to visit the gardens of Sir Lawrence Johnson of Hidcote fame. The Gala Dinner in the Casino Rhul (and no, they did not play the tables tempting as it was ) turned out to be a night to remember as one of great friendship and elegance. The cabaret, which was called “Illusion and Passion”, had everybody entranced and a little puzzled ! How did the Magician manage to put a girl in a box and chop off her head, only for it to reappear on the far side of the stage? It was also with regret that our Members decided that their days of fishnet stockings and frilly red basques were over as they watched the young dancers perform their routines finishing with a Tango Argentino. They could have perhaps given them a lesson in  a Highland Fling or two! With many happy memories of shopping, sight-seeing and wonderful meals they returned safely to Falkirk to regale the Club with their French adventures. Judy Johnston, SI Falkirk

SI Elmbridge has a five year cyclical arrangement with its European friendship link clubs, with each location organising and hosting visitors from the other clubs every five years for a four day visit. This arrangement means that they all get together and get to know members from each of the clubs simultaneously , whist getting opportunities to visit the relevant countries, discuss local issues, experience the culture and see the sights.  Last year’s host was Almelo in the Netherlands - this year members will be travelling to Silkeborg in Denmark