The BIG Project Update

In last Septembers’ Focus I wrote to you with an update of our International Presidents ‘Big Project’ Birthing in the Gambia – this three year project is now in its final year. Working in partnership with MCAI (Maternal & Childhealth Advocacy International) its aim was to provide sufficient funds to renovate and extend buildings; provide trained midwife/doctors; medical equipment, and medicines. For the thousands of women and girls giving birth without adequate facilities. SIGBI has raised, to date, £90,018.36! This year 20th July, SIGBI’s Day of Action for The Big Project will see the final push of fundraising for this project.

Local – Clubs Working Together

The Pillowcase Appeal; our soroptimist sisters in Preston have asked us to check our airing cupboards and linen boxes for spare, good quality, coloured (if possible) pillowcases which they will make into children’s dresses. They plan to make 500 little dresses for third world poor families. The Garstang members are hunting as we speak!

Backpack update

Our project is enjoying a good deal of success thanks to the support of many of the readers of this magazine, the children of Forton Junior School, and the donations of clothes from Vine House Charity shop on the High Street. Girls and boys clothes sizes for 4 to 12 years and flipflops are the most difficult items to obtain so we really appreciate this help.

We now have enough to fill another 12 backpacks, with lots of things to start on the next batch - please keep them coming! Thank you.

We are one of five Soroptimist clubs in England involved in the Back Pack appeal enabling our work to really make a difference.

Guest Speaker

As reported in last month’s Focus, MP Eric Ollerenshaw came along as a guest speaker to our Regional meeting at Lancaster University.  He has a particular interest in ‘trafficking’ and works, in Parliament, towards eliminating this dreadful practice.

Mr Ollerenshaw provided us with an insight into the work our MPs do on our behalf and was able to link our work on trafficking with that of the government.