What is the Darwen Shield?

The shield was donated to the Region by Soroptimist International of Darwen, to be awarded annually to the club which has been judged to have made the greatest contribution to Soroptimist International’s programme objectives.

What for?

The award was made to Garstang for the work undertaken in support of the Purple Teardrop Campaign, an anti-human trafficking campaign, with particular reference to women and girls. Human trafficking is the 3rd biggest international illegal trade with an estimated value in excess of £20,500,000.

What did SI Garstang do?

It was realized that one of the few places that trafficked girls and women had any chance of privacy or were unsupervised, was in public toilets and that, with posters provided by the Purple Teardrop Campaign, it was an ideal place to raise awareness and offer contact details for help. As the town is situated in Wyre Borough, Lancashire, a letter was written to Wyre Borough Council to ask for permission to display the posters in their public toilets. The response was positive and contact details were given for DANFO, the firm contracted by Wyre Borough to service and maintain their toilets. DANFO not only volunteered to frame and mount the posters for us in Wyre, but also gave us details of other councils where they had similar contracts, namely Blackpool, Lancaster City, Fylde and Hackney,London. All these boroughs have been contacted. With the co-operation of Lancashire Constabulary, a poster has been displayed in the local police station also.

SI Garstang are extremely grateful for all the help and advice they received from all the organisations they contacted.