Led by SIA Programme Director Lori Blair, this workshop presented information on global gender-based violence, the UN Secretary General’s study on violence against women, and club and federation project addressing this issue. Participants learned that one in three women would be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her life time; that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women; and that globally, women between the ages of 15 and 44 are more likely to be maimed or die as a result of male violence than through cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war combined.

The problem is vast and the response of Soroptimists is equally vast. Guest panelists from the UN and the federations presented successful club and federation projects. Andrea Mills, SI UN Representative, discussed ways to use the Secretary-General’s report at the local level. Asgerdur Kjatansdottis, Icelandic Union President (SISWP) discussed the Icelandic clubs participation in the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence. Patricia McChesney, Assistant Program Director of Human Rights and Status of Women of SIGBI, discussed an overview of violence against women and the responses of clubs in the diverse areas of her federations. Jenny M. Hughes, Assistant Federation Program Director of SISWP discussed successful local club projects and SISWP’s 2002-2006 project, Halt Family Violence in Papua New Guinea. Finally, Jan Martin, Northwestern Region Governor (SIA), discussed her club’s successful project supporting a local shelter.

Workshop participants had the opportunity to work in small groups to answer the questions: What are the forms of violence against women in your community? What influences violence against women in your community? What are some best practices to address the violence? What are three things you could recommend to your Soroptimist club to address violence against women in a meaningful way? The small groups reported out to the larger group to provide a well-rounded response to the questions.

Following a question and answer session, Programme Director Lori closed the session with two important points. First, men and boys need to be included in efforts to end violence against women. As men are usually the perpetrators, they are best poised to end the violence. Second, ending violence against women is not only to protect women. Without an end to gender based violence, development and poverty-reduction will stall. Violence against women impoverishes women, their families, communities and nations.

This breakout session focused on the relationship between public relations activities and member recruitment success.

Moderated by Cathy Standiford, 2005-2007 SI Public Relations Liaison, with assistance from SI Executive Officer Rosie Coutts and SI Extension Committee Chair, Siri Bjerke, participants enjoyed a highly interactive discussion of issues associated with PR and its relationship to member recruitment.

Breakout participants shared best PR practices that resulted in new members. These included distributing posters about the club and its activities in the community, use of club websites; articles in the local media about Soroptimist and member recruitment efforts; and focusing PR activities on club service projects, instead of just their fund raising events.

Participants reported a desire to evaluate the image of our organization and develop strategies to attract younger members. Two younger Soroptimists shared their insights for making meetings and activities more attractive to new members, including the use of technology, such as developing a Soroptimist section on YouTube. Asking younger members about their service passions to develop into projects was another useful strategy for making younger members feel valued and connected to their club.

Participants broke into smaller groups to develop an event or activity around Project Punjab, the 2006 December 10th Appeal, that would both increase awareness of their club in their local community, and serve as an opportunity to recruit new members.

They left the breakout session committed to taking a PR approach to the new Quadrennial Project and the 2007 December 10th Presidents Appeal as a strategy to attract new members to join us in serving the needs of women and girls.

No one was disappointed at Margaret Cook’s “sold-out” interactive workshop, which was both informative and fun - and first up was a quiz of 10 questions to test delegates’ knowledge about HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

The group was visibly moved by the openness and honesty of Speaker Cathy Crawford, who had contracted HIV/AIDS in 1996 during a relationship with unprotected sex. Within weeks she started to feel very ill – and once it had been confirmed that she was HIV positive, she thought she would die. But with the right treatment and proper education about her illness, she bravely carried on with her life and now speaks for the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS.

The next topic to challenge the group’s perceptions was a presentation of the effects of Malaria on the world’s population, with a “skit” of a mythical executive board meeting discussing possible club projects – including the production of fly swatters in the Soroptimist blue and gold!

On a more serious note, Soroptimist Inger Norbach - who works with the World Health Organisation on the 2005 President’s Appeal – said that the Roll Back Malaria project had netted £153,527.43 from clubs around the world. The funds had provided 30,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets to families in Ze' village in Benin, Africa, and indoor residual spraying and intermittent treatment for pregnant women were other preventive methods funded by the project.

Finally, the audience broke into groups for a brainstorming session to come up with effective projects for three different sized clubs.

Posterity - who cares?

The workshop on climate change, run by Eileen Mitchell and Ralda Forzin from the Environmental Education Centre, Queensland, and adjudicated by SIGBI’s Denise Staplehurst, of canoeing fame, complemented perfectly Professor Cox’s Plenary Lecture.

With the aid of some wonderfully humorous slides, Eileen gave background information on sustainable development to meet the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Referring to the Kyoto Protocol, she noted that Japan is the one industrialised country not showing an increase in CO2 emissions.

Focus groups discussed “Power from water” using pre-prepared fact cards. Denise Staplehurst summed up that part of the session as: “There isn’t one solution; we raised awareness and we need to decide what action to take.” And the final 20 minutes were used to do just that:

* Produce international pin badge about importance and awareness of sustainable energy.

* Club members to walk distances of less than a mile and to evaluate their lifestyles in relation to carbon neutral activities, including car sharing.

* Monthly competition for best climate saving practice in club, change lifestyle to accommodate this, and publish to local community.

* Return packaging at supermarkets and raise awareness; lobby manufacturers to reduce packaging.

* A consistent and more rigorous national policy for recycling, with better resources for local councils to implement that.

* Educate children in home cooking, reusing and recycling products and understanding sustainable energy. * Eat home cooked local seasonal food to reduce food miles.

* Encourage people to purchase energy saving appliances and light bulbs and develop technology for environmentally friendly cars.

* Change to environmentally friendly energy supplier.

* Lobby Government on changing attitudes about packaging, recycling and sustainable energy and building regulations to include insulation.

Sustainability is a journey – it needs new ways of living, new ways of working. We now need action, involvement, interaction and leadership.

Indrani Manuel, SI/SWP Federation Programme Director, presented some rather bare facts to the workshop participants:

* Over 100 million children are still not enrolled in primary school; 55% of them being girls.
* Globally 166 million children aged 5-14 are involved in child labour.

Jane Hastings, UKPAC-UNICEF liaison, presented a seven-minute DVD film “Girl Stars”, telling the story of Bhanwari, a girl from Pakistan who had studied and realised her dream of becoming a policewoman – and delegates were able to see a photograph of her standing proudly in the uniform of the Parchu Police Station, appealing to other girls to study and so become more confident and free.

Yvonne Machuk, Past President of SIA, presented Soroptimist education projects throughout the world to inspire us or to share best practice in developing new projects and programmes to improve feminine access to educational opportunities.

Major International events like the 2012 Olympics could raise opportunities for human trafficking, according to members of the Poole, Bournemouth and Southampton clubs in the south of England who have helped raise £4,000 for a women’s refuge.

The Breakout session was led by Sandra Barnes, a member of the UK Delegation to the Council of Europe who encouraged Soroptimists to lobby their Governments to sign and ratify the implementation of the Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005).www.coe.int/trafficking.

To have real IMPACT, members were encouraged to become more politically and socially involved by supporting victims, educating the broader community and prosecuting perpetrators. Trafficking is a multi-million pound business involving organised crime, money laundering and drugs.

Initiatives have included Danish clubs obtaining signatures from 100 prominent men against trafficking, Yorkshire clubs working with police to produce an information pack, toiletries bags and clothing, Scandinavian clubs selling a purple ribbon to raise funds to help rescued women and a day set aside in Swedish schools to make pupils aware of trafficking.

More information on the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking is located on www.unodoc.org.

The next International Conference on Trafficking is in Vienna on 27 to 29 November 2007.

What is extreme poverty? That was the question answered by Dawn Marie Lemonds with a definition of “extreme poverty”, as she explained how the Millennium Development Goals were directly related to the new 2007-2011 Programme Focus.

Soroptimist Else Larse, UN (retired), presented an overview of the UN’s approach to poverty and the responsibility of civil society organisations to work in partnership with the UN.

Patty Pina, Women for Women International, said that social exclusion had a much larger impact on poverty than mere economics alone.

Penny Veness, SIGBI APD, emphasised the importance of fair trade, through which workers are paid a proper wage for the work they produce, to which Soroptimists could contribute through their spending power.

It was time for Soroptimists to band together on behalf of women and girls and take them out of social isolation and into active citizenship.

Our tour guide was Louise Bustart, who told us some interesting facts about the Palace and plants.

The gardens were originally the University Physic gardens, they moved to their present place in 1841. The Kibble Palace is named after John Kibble of Coulport, who donated the glasshouses from his country estate.

The garden is now owned by the council and is used for educational projects. There was a variety of plants some used for medicinal purposes including the treatment of cancer and HIV/AIDS.

Seeds from a new species of tree discovered in Australian in 1995 have now been promulgated and sold to Botanic gardens around the world.

The dye garden had amongst its plants several wood plants, blue dye was made from this and in the middle ages Scottish soldiers used to paint there faces blue to scare the enemy, what a sight that must have been!