Visit to Brikama Hospital Gambia 2013

Whilst on holiday in The Gambia, Lisette Gill and her husband Mike visited the Soroptimists 3E Project: Healthcare which is a joint project with the medical charity Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International (MCIA). This project focuses on access to appropriate healthcare through education, empowerment and enabling opportunities for women, children and babies. Lisette visited the Maternity Unit at Brikama Hospital and made a donation on behalf of the Wakefield Club of £100 and a dozen knitted baby vests. There are approximately 500 births here a month. It is much safer to give birth in the hospital than at home. Currently one pregnant woman out of every 49 dies from complications of pregnancy or childbirth, and for every death another 30 women are left disabled. The photo shows Lisette with Saaro Darboe (MCIA Financial and Administrative Officer based in Banjul) who kindly drove Lisette and her husband to the hospital, and Ensa Jarju, head midwife.

Fish and Chip Babies 2013

A group of members from S I Wakefield has been busy recently knitting jumpers and hats for African babies. The campaign started in New Zealand a couple of years ago and quickly escalated. The families are so poor that they have neither clothes nor blankets for their babies and many newborn infants, some of whom are HIV positive. are sent home from hospital wrapped in newspaper for warmth......hence the title 'Fish & Chip' Babies. The small jumpers and beanies are excellent for this purpose. Initially our members had a problem finding a means of transporting the finished garments to Africa but this was resolved when we linked up with a charity based in Scotland which sends goods to Malawi on a regular basis. Because S I Yorkshire, our regional club, has a close link with Zimbabwe we are currently looking into a method of sending a consignment of the garments to that country. So far our members have completed approx 100 garments.

Visit to Zimbabwe 2012

Whilst visiting the five Zimbabwean Soroptimist clubs (KweKwe, Harare, Vabatsire, Uyanda and Bulawayo) SI Yorkshire members were given time from visiting many projects to relax at Victoria Falls for three days. During this time, they took the opportunity to have High Tea at the Victoria Falls Hotel.

Cheque presentation to SI KweKwe 2012

Money raised by SI Wakefield was taken to Zimbabwe by president Judith and presented to three members of SI KweKwe at their project at KweKwe General Hospital to support Cervical Cancer screening.

Bobble Hats for older people

Members of SI Wakefield took part in a mammoth knitting session to help Age UK raise money for their work with older people by making mini bobble hats to top Innocent Smoothies. For every bobble hat that Age Uk sent to Innocent, they raised themselves 50p. Over 8,000 hats were recieved by Age UK and SI Wakefield managed to knit about 250 of these.

Royal Armouries Peace Day 2012

Soroptimists fro Wakefield Club will be attending the Royal Armouries Peace day in September 2012 to help promote a message of peace to people of all ages through displays and activities

Reconnect coffee club 2012 onwards

SI Wakefield members are helping at Balne Lane Community centre at a coffee club for local residents. The aim of the scheme is to ensure that they have some social activity to get them out of their homes.