Programme Action

 

Saturday of Service

Beach Clean Wembury 3rd March.

!2 Soroptimists and 5 helpers attended to help clear the beach.

38 black bin liners filled, contents listed included 500 plastic bottles. List were passed to the press and the 'Keep Britain Tidy Campaign'.

International Goodwill & Understanding

The film Hotel Rwanda was shown to interested club members in order to raise awareness for Women Survivors of War.  Donations raised at the evenings were given to Project Independence.

The committee worked with ACTSA (Action  for South Africa) for their "Dignity Period Campaign", selling wristbands. Every £2.50 raised provides sanitary protection for a women of Zimbabwe for 3 months. At the time of the report £342 has been raised. Thanks to everyone concerned with the selling of the wristbands.

A coffee morning was held in aid of SI Youande's Capitation fees. £185 was raised. We are hoping to form a friendship link with this club and hopefully help with their capitation fees for the next 3 years

NEPAL Project

We agreed a project with NEWHA (Nepal Water & Health) which would provide a community in the area with sufficient sanitation for the whole village. Each family who received a latrine had to raise 500 rupees (approx £5) towards the cost. (Average annual income £120) We have been provided with the names of each family who have received a latrine and photos of the construction and completed latrines.

NEWHA conducted training sessions for the villagers and a committee was appointed in the village to take ownership of the project. 

Working with NEWHA, provided tube toilets (sealed latrines) for a community of 241 people in an area of SW Nepal at a cost to us of approximately £1700.

TREVI House has been the main beneficiary of our fund raising with about £1500 having been gathered.  TREVI is a Drug & Rehabilitation Centre for Women where they can keep their children with them, rather tahn losing them into the system.

As well as all the fund raising we’ve also taught them to knit, we’ve helped paint a house, we’ve sorted household objects and toiletries for their use, but more than that, has been the raising of awareness that  there is a drug rehab project of this kind within our city. We have made a link with Trevi that we hope  will continue into the future with more, and different ways of helping these women who are trying hard to help themselves and their children

Other activities included:

  • Tin rattling for MacMillan nurses and British Legion

  • Sponsored walk & coffee morning for Macmillan nurses

  • Undertook Soup Run for the Homeless for 2 years running for Saturday of Service

  • Love-in-a-Box collection – ongoing

  • Collected and packed up toiletries for Women’s Refuge, TREVI House  and Shekinah Mission – ongoing

  • Home decoration for Women’s Refuge and TREVI House

  • Lobbied supermarkets with questions and suggestions and researched the Irish Government’s policies of charging for all plastic bags in Supermarkets which reduced the usage by 90%

Pyramid of Shoes - our protest against Cluster Bombs

In partnership with Handicap International we built a great Pyramid of shoes in Plymouth City Centre on November 5th.  Many schools were involved and children came to put their own shoes on the Pyramid.  Every shoe represented a limb or life lost to Cluster Bombs and Landmines, so the children learned a valuable lesson when they found that the shoes were being sent to people who had no shoes at home and abroad.  The shoes were redistributed by the Salvation Army who had also collected them from the schools. We were interviewed on radio the day before the event and people brought shoes as a result of the broadcast.

 

The day was a great success (helped of course by glorious weather!).  We collected 2 tonnes of shoes (approx. 4,000 pairs of shoes) and gathered almost 2,500 signatures.  Click here for link to slideshow, then follow prompts by clicking on Pyramid of Shoes