Soroptimist International Bath and District

President Jenny inducted our latest member at our meeting on Wednesday evening at the Hall and Woodhouse restaurant in Bath. Mary Burton is our newest recruit and she was welcomed by our President and presented with her badge and welcome pack. We hope that Mary will soon start to take part with all of our projects and advocacy and wish her well in our Soroptimist community.

Club members from the South West came together by train from all over the region to join the Swindon club, with guest appearances from Tara Newley-Arkle and the Police Commissioner for Wiltshire, Angus McPherson. There were over 50 members who walked from Swindon station through the town offering ‘love me, love me not’ bookmarks to anyone that was passing by. This was to mark the elimination of violence against women day which is on Monday.

The rally finished at the Steam museum with talks from the Deputy Lord Lieutenant and Angus McPherson before listening to a women’s group of survivors and thrivers who have come together to sing their special song.

We heard all about the charity Mercy Ships on Saturday at our regional meeting in Taunton.   What a fascinating charity it is and it gives so much hope to many people in West Africa in particular. The operations that these amazing volunteers perform are life changing and benefit so many lives.

Club members filled up shoe boxes with goodies for different gender and age groups for the FSCI charity which is part of the Trussell Trust charity based in Salisbury.  Bon voyage!

Liz presented the 3rd Toilet Twinning Certificate to The Embroidery Guild at Saltford Hall today. This was in memory of Miss Beryl Morgan. This completes the 3 presentations, the other two being  St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Corsham where Beryl wotshipped and Hall and Woodhouse restaurant in Bath where we hold our monthly meetings. Please look out for them in their toilettes!

Our 85th Federation conference took place in October, and as usual there were great speakers such as Baroness Susan Greenfield who gave us an insight into neuroscience.  

The main theme was about mental health “Think on it”, which was our Federation President’s theme for the past year.

Programme Action is still at the forefront of our work and many clubs won Best Practice awards for their wonderful projects which inspired us all.

Tamsin who attends Abbeyfield School in Chippenham raised money to take her on a volunteering trip to Cambodia to help with several projects in remote villages as well as taking on some strenuous treks there.  Her adventure lasted a month and she wrote up a journal of her thoughts and experiences with accompanying photos whilst she was there .  Her presentation was very informative and we were happy that we sponsored her for such a worthwhile cause.  However, we were not too impressed with the amount of tarantulas that she encountered on her travels!

Tamsin is passionate about the environment and is setting up several projects at school to help get rid of plastic so we look forward to hearing all about those projects in the future.

A few of us were given a conducted tour of the Breast Unit at the RUH and we learnt about the forthcoming plans to improve the unit by expanding it and renovating the existing unit giving it a more efficient and friendly feel.

The future is looking bright especially for breast cancer sufferers and we are glad that we’ve been able to fundraise for the Forever Friends appeal. £600,000 needs to be raised by the public to help fund the appeal. £250,000 to go!

3 members from our club travelled to Kuala Lumpur to attend the International Convention and met up with our friendship links and also made new friends. We spent 3 days listening to inspiring speakers from all over the world but especially from Malaysia.  We were well looked after and enjoyed  2 very fibrant social evenings.

Christina Lamb, War Correspondent from the UK gave a good presentation as well.

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