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Making a Difference
Each Soroptimist club takes part in "Programme Action" and reports regularly to our Federations about their work. This is collated and sent to Soroptimist International who they send reports to the United Nations, where we have representatives. We also have a link with the World Health Organisation and all of our reports on health issues are sent to them. Most of our work falls into one or more of the following categories:
Here is a sample of what the S. I. Reading, Wokingham & Bracknell have been doing:
The International President's Appeal Restoring Dignity supporting the work of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital
More information is available on the web site. Please click here or heading below
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Thames Valley & Chilterns Air Ambulance Trust The club's programme for 2004/2005 was based around this service as the President chose this as her charity. This is an emergency helicopter service which is used to airlift accident victims quickly to the most appropriate hospital and is dependent on donations and fund raising to keep flying, as there is no government support. We had speakers on various subjects during the year as well as The Air Ambulance, i.e. 1,000 year history of Reading, The Berkshire Medical Heritage Centre at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, Voluntary Reading Helpers, World War I Hospitals in Berkshire, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, The Berkshire Association of Clubs for Young People and Healthier Organisations in Berkshire. Our fund raising events for the Trust included a Charity Bridge Drive, a meeting with our neighbouring clubs of Newbury & Oxford, a boat cruise on the Thames, a dramatic presentation called "After Chekhov", an informal lunch at a local golf club, a coffee morning with a raffle and a jumble sale. visit the air ambulance website
Trafficking of Women & Children In the summer of 2006 all Clubs were asked to complete postcards with our view as to why we feel that the U.N. resolution 1325 should be implemented (as this was still not implemented). We had discussion about this at Club and decided on the wording below. These postcards were sent to our Federation Office from where they were forwarded to the Secretary General of the United Nations in bundles of 1325 cards. U.N. Resolution 1325 We agreed to each complete 2 postcards (preferably with local views on them) . Once completed, they were collected at a Club meeting, then sent to SIGBI (our Federation Office) for forwarding to the government in bundles of 1325, which highlights how concerned all Soroptimists are about the U.N. resolution. Members were asked to complete their postcards, each stating "U.N. resolution 1325 should be implemented because ....... " (and then one of the following reasons - expanding it, if wishing to do so). Members were asked to sign the card and put their postcode on it. The cards were addressed to Secretary General of t he United Nations. There are many web-sites that will help you to research this subject for yourself. Some of these are ;
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We were pleased to welcome representatives from the Medical Foundation to speak at our meeting in May 2005 and Helen Bamber, of the Helen Bamber Foundation, to our June meeting. The June meeting was shared with Soroptimists from our Region, members of the local group of Amnesty International and Soroptimists from Budapest and Dusseldorf. Several members had previously written to their MPs and/or attended a surgery. We have been lucky enough to receive several replies, including a very detailed answer from the DTI and another from Jack Straw, via the MP for Wokingham. Our thoughts have been followed up with the MP for Bracknell Forest. Our Programme Action Officer was disappointed that the Home Office and Thames Valley Police seemed reluctant to share their viewpoint on this subject. The Club has found this a very difficult subject to study. Whilst we are sympathetic to the needs of all victims of trafficking, and are quite certain that there are some local instances, we have been unable to find hard evidence. We have recommended to our regional and national programme action committees that the subject be given the profile it deserves. Extracts from our June 05 meeting: We broke into five discussion groups and each was given a separate subject. When we reconvened it was interesting that all the groups reported similar findings. These are some of their comments: What is exploitation?
· Taken away from homes and families · Finances – may have debts for the rest of their lives – not just the trafficked person but also their families. · Sold into the labour market, often into prostitution or illegal work in factories or the hotel industry. · The victims are punished and lose their freedom · Victims lose their identity · Always seems to be the trafficked person who is punished and not the traffickers. Do we know what the issue is?
Who sold who and why? Who will benefit, or seems to benefit? Who expects to benefit? Slavery, control Migration, asylum How do we identify the victims? Where are they? Who takes action locally? Who sorts out the problem? What are the consequences of exploitation?
The Individual
The Exploiter · Gets stronger The Governments · There is nothing in it for them to fix it. · If you are stateless you can’t vote. · Because governments don’t want to do anything about it the traffickers become stronger and stronger. Contribution from Hungarian members: There was exploitation at the end of WWII when borders were re-drawn. Some Hungarians were left outside what had been old Hungary and they had no papers – in effect, they became dispossessed people. They, and the gypsies, became the people who are exploited most of all. The media · Not very interesting news! · They don’t want to know about children who are brought here as sex slaves etc. Why does exploitation happen?
Desire to escape Unemployment Corruption Greed – cheap labour Vulnerability Naivety Lack of compassion & knowledge - inertia Fears among indigenous population How can we move forward following Jack Straw’s letter?
Concerns · Means of identification of genuine victims of trafficking (and may be slavery or torture). · We need to press the government to implement the key areas of Security Council Resolution 1325 (now 4 years old) · What do these organisations actually do? We cannot really tell from the letter what their role is. · How can we help? · Timescale for legislation to go through Parliament · How do the measures tie in with each other? · It looks as though we need to seek further support for the victims. · A DTI letter states that they want to use women’s organisations to help the government to implement It was recommended that the Hungarians and Germans Soroptimist present look at the web for information about 1325 in their own language and then see if they can follow it up with their own governments. Conclusion/Summary We seem to have an understanding about a trafficked person (usually a frightened, vulnerable person) but we have not arrived at a decision about how to help them. How do we identify the victims? Where are they? Who takes action locally? Who sorts out the problem? We realise that we must continue to push our government offices to provide more spaces in safe-houses and to persuade them to look beyond the trafficked persons towards the traffickers, who are the criminals. We also need to ask them how they intend to identify genuine victims. It was suggested that we go back to our MPs with Jack Straw’s letter and ask “What do you think this means?”
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL DATA BASE We are very fortunate to have the offices for the whole International Organisation in Cambridgeshire. Every Club in the world completes forms to report on the progress of the projects they undertake and these are sent up the ladder until they reach the International offices. All of this information is entered into a Progamme Action Data Base. Any member of any Club may request a print-out giving them all the details held about a particular subject. This is very useful if we are organising an event, or investigation project, which we find is similar to that held somewhere else in the world - there is no point in re-inventing the wheel!
Our local environment
Dinton Pastures Several years ago the Club president, being keen on conservation matters, had decided to raise funds to provide disabled access to a ‘Hide’, so that disabled visitors could also observe the wildlife at Dinton Pastures Country Park, Wokingham. During the past 10 years, or so, the Country Park wardens have looked after the pathway on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis. We decided a return visit was required to reacquaint ourselves with the area and to perform some remedial work. Together with a warden we learnt about the Country Park and cleared some of the undergrowth from the path sides. We have resolved to make this a bi-annual visit, to ensure that the disabled visitors to the park are able to continue to enjoy this facility.
Recycling/Waste Management The aim of this recycling project was purely educational. In Club we had identified that each of the three councils represented had very different attitudes to waste management. We therefore wanted to pull together this information and make the residents more aware of the initiatives on offer. Our major goals therefore were to:- Make Club members aware of need to recycle Determine current policy in the councils represented in Club Identify gaps Lobby the local Councils Educate the residents of a least one represented Council. Action
Results Recycling Survey in the ClubOf the members surveyed, around 50% of the club's membership, most had received at least one recycling box, which they used on a regular basis. Items not recycled were Aerosols, Aluminium Foil and garden waste. The main reason was lack of facilities & kerbside collection. Around 50% of those surveyed composted their “green waste” on a fairly regular basis. All respondents gave their unwanted clothes to charity. Nobody used a Hippo in the toilet, although several members had dual flush toilets. Some club members expressed concern that a Hippo could lead to problems with blocked drains. Most surveyed used their own shopping bags most of the time and, where possible, minimised on the purchase of over packaged goods. We recognise that there is not always the possibility of doing this. Around 50% of surveyed members car-shared whenever possible. As a consequence most of these members did not use public transport regularly. The members who were not able to car-share tended to use public transport more regularly. The use of public transport was, on average, once a week for these members. Only 50% of those surveyed regularly switched off lights when leaving a room. Almost all members did not leave the television on stand-by (Note- some modern TV’s do not allow you to switch the TV off, only by turning off at the socket. Some members would consider renewable power, but a lot would depend on the cost and practicality. Other Comments Overuse of washing detergent – some used Eco balls Overuse of cleaning agents such as bleach Bracknell Town Centre survey In general there was a good understanding of what could be recycled. There was some discontentment at recent initiatives, which was making people less likely to recycle. This was largely centred around making residents pay for the bags to recycle green waste. Residents were discouraged from purchasing the bags & many were unaware from where these could be purchased. Residents who had fairly recently moved in to the area were less likely to know about the recycling in their area. It would appear that Green boxes are not left for new residents to use. (Should there be some instruction on the Wheelie bins?). Many residents found the fortnightly collection too infrequent. They were not recycling, as they did not want unsightly piles of waste hanging around. A few residents who live close to recycling centres were able to take their excess waste to communal bins. There were a lot of requests for weekly collections. Some residents had some quite innovative designs for recycling boxes. It was thought it would be more useful to be able to store these boxes outside. The lack of covers was a problem for many residents, they could not understand why lids were not made available as standard. Residents would then be requested to remove lids before presenting boxes at the kerbside, in much the same way that you need to take the wheelie bin to the roadside. Rather than recycling boxes some residents thought the council should provide a second wheelie bin for recyclables. There was some concern at the lack of respect shown by refuse collectors. Sometimes bins were simply thrown down, sometimes damaging residents property (plants). Most were happy with the recycling centres, but did complain that at peak-times, weekends & holidays, these were not emptied regularly enough. There was a concern that overflowing of the centres' bins could lead to an increase in fly tipping, as residents did not want to take the waste home again. On this front some residents expressed concern about the level of abandoned cars. Some of the elderly residents found the green box too large and were unaware of the council’s “special door collection” scheme. Some residents felt that councils should be placing more pressure on manufacturers to reduce the amount of packaging, especially plastics, which currently are not collected. On this point many residents are placing all types of plastics in the green box, to try to force the issue. Some residents felt that supermarkets should charge for plastic bags & carriers to encourage people to bring their own bags. In a similar way some residents felt that residents should be charged (by weight) for the removal of waste (This would very much depend on more adequate provision being made for recycling) Items that residents wished to recycle: Plastics (Yoghurt pots, meat & fruit containers, plastic bags) Batteries (not car batteries) Glass to be collected from kerbside.
Water Aid Having had an inspiring speaker, a member was enthused enough to set up a luncheon on International Women's Day (8th March) when ladies brought food from their countries. There were several areas represented: Australia, Bolivia, United States of America, and closer to home: Wales (north & south), Scotland, Tyneside, Scottish/Anglo Borders, and even one from Reading! The different foods were terrific and the money raised was sent to Water Aid. Water Aid is one of the charities that our club is support during 2007/08, starting with an afternoon charity Bridge Drive in March 2007. Another inspiring speaker told us about AQUABOXES which are sent to places in the world that are in crisis. We have bought an AQUABOX, including a filter pack, and we are collecting items, such as listed below, so that it can be sent to places where there is no clean water and a great need for all the items.
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