SI/E Seminar: "THERE WAS HOPE IN THEM"

Soroptimist International Club Krakow Galicja
invites to the seminar:

"THERE WAS HOPE IN THEM.
- Women at the time of war and occupation and their difficult choices"

Place and Date: Krakow, Oswiecim (Auschwitz), April 23rd-25th 2010.

Aims: Learn, understand, communicate - save the historic remembrance and truth for future generations.
- Broadening the knowledge and raising awareness of the members of Soroptimist International.
- Building ties in today’s Europe basing on the experience of the war and occupation generation.
- Showing women’s attitudes in the inhumane world.
- Paying tribute to the Holocaust victims.
- Showing collective historical memory as heritage, which should be the source of reflection and the ground for educating young generations.
- Using the dialogue in the spirit of tolerance.

Project Realisation:
The project implies the meeting of women, associated in the European and World Clubs of Soroptimist International, in Krakow; combined with a seminar (study visits, discussion panel, meeting with authors, concert, exhibition).

Our initiative is aimed at women who are interested in learning the truth behind the events of World War II in the area of Poland. Historical truth is manipulated much too often. The witnesses of the past events, including the generation of children who were born during the war, are passing away. Therefore, women who witnessed past events have been invited to the conference to share their memories with us. The historical memory contained in the fates of individual people is very suggestive and it gives us an opportunity to empathize with them and form our own judgment on the problem. We hope that we will be able to communicate and show that the experience of war can help us overcome our contemporary, worldly problems or face various adversities. It will help us believe that people are able to unite against evil.

We want these saved memories to contribute to the development of humanistic attitudes. In the period of moral evil, when many women were victims of inhuman deeds (medical experiments, rapes, murders of the innocent), women also played an important role. For them life was, unquestionably, the most important value. Having saved and given the gift of life, they were becoming the carriers of dignity and guaranteed survival. They could forgive, overcome their hatred, nurse hope.

The seminar participants associated in Soroptimist clubs often try to find for themselves new social challenges and missions. Sharing the knowledge on the experience of women in extreme war conditions, we want to boost their motivation and support their faith in the belief that every activity to help others, in every historical context has a profound meaning.

Seminar Program:

Friday, 23rd April 2010
• Arrival, Accommodating participants
• Visiting Krakow under the banner of Krakow as a meeting place of many cultures
• Opening the seminar in Galicja Museum:
• Speech by the Representative of Galicia Jewish Heritage Institute
• Dignity saved… -Meeting with exceptional women, history witnesses:
- Roma Ligocka – a writer, painter and the author of ”The Girl in the Red Coat”, the prototype of the figure of a girl in the film “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg;
- a woman awarded the title: Righteous among the Nations of the World;
and
- the Survivor
• Dinner
• Late Evening Walk in Kazimierz – the Jewish District of Krakow

Saturday, 24th April 2010
State Museum Auschwitz -Birkenau in Oswiecim:
• Visiting the camp in Auschwitz and the camp in Birkenau
• Women’s camp stories – meeting with a Museum director
• Lunch
Maximilian’s Centre in Harmeze, Franciscan Monastery
• visiting the exhibition: - Labyrinths of Memory, works by Marian Kolodziej, an ex Auschwitz camp prisoner depicting camp life and experience.
• Man in the presence of evil - discussion
Galicja Museum:
• Dinner
• Song koncert by Jaga Wronska, an artist of Loch Camelot

Sunday, 25th April 2010
A Walk in Krakow:
• Podgorze – places connected with Krakow’s ghetto (“The Pharmacy under the Eagle” - a supply and contact spot for the Jews living in the ghetto, Oscar Schindler’s Enamelware Factory)
• Sightseeing
• Lunch
• Free time
• Optional - Temples and Cemeteries of Kazimierz

Seminar costs:
Registration fee - 270,00 euro (program costs: guides, consecutive translation, entrance fees, transport, meals – lunches, dinners)
Accommodation approx. - 80,00 euro per night x 3 nights = 240,00 euro

We would like to ask the ladies interested in the seminar to confirm their participation by 15th January 2010 by sending an e-mail to the following address: klubgalicja@gmail.com

Animated Climate Talks: Voices from COP15

The Little Mermaid laments the COP15 outcome

The Little Mermaid laments the COP15 outcome. Members of the tcktcktck coalition of more than 15 million people today called "Climate shame" on heads of state in Copenhagen.

source: http://www.greenpeace.org

Anna Tibaijuka / Sanitation in the Urban Millennium / Part 1

Anna Tibaijuka / Sanitation in the Urban Millennium / PART 1 from Soroptimist Europe on Vimeo.

Anna Tibaijuka express her thoughts about sanitation issues at the Soroptimist International of Europe Water Congress, held in Amsterdam, 2009.

Water is life, Sanitation is dignity, and unfortunately for the majority of humankind, this dignity is simply not there.

Anna Tibaijuka is the Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-HABITAT.

(www.unhabitat.org)

soroptimisteurope.org
soroptimistsgoforwater.nl

webclips by buzzmedia.net

Soroptimists of Saratoga celebrate 30 years of providing the ‘best for women’

By MAREESA NICOSIA, The Saratogian

Click to enlarge

Soroptimists (from left) President-elect Joan Gerhardt, former President Susan Van Raalte, current President Jovanka Harrison and former President Mary Huber display an award the Saratoga club received in honor of its accomplishments. (ED BURKE/The Saratogian)

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Loosely translated from Latin, the term “Soroptimist” means “best for women.”

The phrase is a benchmark for success used by Soroptimist International of Saratoga County, which is marking its 30th anniversary as the local chapter of the professional women’s service club.

“We work to improve the lives of women and girls locally and throughout the world,” said 2009-10 club president Jovanka N. Harrison, a Saratoga Springs resident and research specialist for the New York State Cancer Registry.

They do it by raising money, contributing funds and rolling up their sleeves, providing public service in a spirit of camaraderie.

In the 2008-09 year, the club raised more than $24,000, the majority of which was distributed to nonprofit organizations and award recipients, including female heads of households pursuing an undergraduate degree.

For the past four years, the local club and Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Saratoga County have been working together to give women the tools to obtain financial and legal independence through a free eight-week program called Project Hope and Power. Soroptimist members volunteer as program facilitators and mentors, and also baby-sit for the children of the women attending the classes.

Harrison, who joined the club in 2004, said her aim as president in 2010 is to make a greater impact on the community through the club’s ongoing signature service projects and by surpassing fundraising levels.

The two major annual fundraisers are the Cabin Fever luncheon, which will next feature Virginia G. Drachman, author of “Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business,” on Feb. 6; and the Secret Gardens Tour on the second Sunday of July.

A longtime member and former chairwoman of the Secret Gardens Committee is Saratoga Springs resident Mary Caroline Powers, who has been a Saratoga Soroptimist member since the club’s second year.

“I felt very strongly that I needed to engage in the civic life of the community that I was living in and raising my children in, and this was a wonderful way to do that,” said Powers, who joined the club after giving birth to her third child, who is now a married mother of two.

Powers is vice president for communications and government relations for Empire State College. She and Harrision are among about 60 business and professional women in the local club, which meets monthly for dinners and programs at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club and distributes funding to dozens of local organizations that help women and girls. Members pay dues, attend monthly meetings, serve on committees and contribute at least 12 hours of service each year.

Soroptimist members come from a spectrum of professions — they include attorneys, business owners, members of academia, fitness instructors, financial advisers, executives of nonprofits and newspaper editors. They range in age from their mid-20s to late 60s and they include retirees, CEOs, grandmothers and young mothers. Internationally, the club counts 95,000 members in 1,400 clubs throughout 120 countries.

“Any woman who is willing to give back to the community and who has the time and the resources can become a Soroptimist,” Harrison said.

The Project Hope and Power has become a keynote program of Saratoga Soroptimists. It teaches skills like resume writing, interviewing for a job, establishing credit and managing money. The objective is to help women break free from abusive relationships.

“It gives them the emotional, analytical, financial and practical skills to venture out on their own,” Harrison said. “What’s rewarding is to see the development, the strengthening of their self-esteem during the training. It gives them the things that a lot of us take for granted.”

Harrison said the program has served about 40 local women a year since its inception four years ago. It has received acknowledgement by Soroptimists at the national and international levels in the form of $10,600 in grants. The club has also received requests to teach other Soroptimist chapters how to start their own Project Hope and Power programs, she said.

“It’s about what we can do to make a difference,” she said, adding that as a Soroptimist and a world citizen, she encourages young women to “break any ceilings that may exist.”

Soroptimist public service goes well beyond local borders. Members have been responsible for a clean water project in Mexico and introducing legislation to the United Nations about abortion rights. They have been increasing public awareness about sexual trafficking. And local members like the late Betsy Davis were in the forefront of efforts to speak out against female genital mutilation, Powers said.

“I don’t think another club would have necessarily taken up these issues,” Powers said.

She described the club’s founding members, including first president Sondra Silverhart, second president Martha Margolis and third president Linda Toohey as “cracker jacks” — intelligent, energetic, influential, fun women who were leaders in the business community.

Charter member Lisa Schroeder-Bevis, who joined the club at age 23, shortly after opening the Clothes Horse store on Broadway, said the women were connected through their desire to improve the quality of life for other women and children, and they had the resources and motivation to get things done.

The formation of their female network took place in a social and cultural environment much different than today’s.

“In ’79 and ’80, the community was just beginning to brush itself off and move forward. It was not the community it is today,” Powers said. Women were not allowed to join Rotary, Kiwanis or Lions clubs in those decades. Now, they are; yet Soroptimists still has a special appeal for women, including young professionals.

“The sharing of ideas about social concerns, and doing activities that make a difference about those social concerns is a real bonding experience,” Powers said.

For more information about Soroptimist International of Saratoga County, go to www.saratogasoroptimists.org.

Cast your vote in the Angry Mermaid Award!

Vote for the company or lobby group you think is doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change.

The Angry Mermaid Award has been set up to recognise the perverse role of corporate lobbyists, and highlight those business groups and companies that have made the greatest effort to sabotage the climate talks, and other climate measures, while promoting, often profitable, false solutions.

The award is named after the iconic mermaid statue in Copenhagen - where crucial climate talks will take place this December. The mermaid is angry about the destruction being caused by climate change.

Tell us who you think is the biggest culprit by casting your vote online now!

(info from: Friends of the Earth International www.foei.org )

The Soroptimists Commit Themselves to Water

WATER, A NATURAL PROPERTY and COMMUNAL INHERITANCE
A PUBLIC PROPERTY

• Sensitive to the universal principle of water, the source of life

• Conscious that it concerns one of the crucial stakes in this 21st century for the future of humanity and life on the planet

• Convinced that its increasing short supply in a quantitative and qualitative level, due to global warming, gives it even more a character of communal property, and public world heritage.

WE ASK

• Respect for this essential property, indispensable to the life of all human beings or living species.

• Guaranteed access to all to this precious property and its recognition as a human right.

For this dramatic situation in terms of food, access to water, health, for three billion impoverished human beings should finally be taken into account.

• Participation of every citizen to its safeguarding, protection, valorisation in the interest of all and future generations.

Because it is unacceptable that access to drinkable water is still denied to more than a billion and a half people, that more than 2.6 billion have no access at all to sanitary facilities and that the measures taken at the present time to stop the devastation of the planet’s water resources still remain derisory.

In the light of the conclusions and the proposals formulated during the International Conference «Peace with Water» which was held in the European Parliament in Brussels on the 12th and 13th February

WE ASK

• the political powers engaged in the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change (UNFCCC) to support us legislatively and financially in order not to make water a source of conflict between populations, regions, riverside countries or transnational hydrographic basins.

WE EXPECT

• That the problematic of water should be put on the agenda of the COP 15 of Copenhagen in December 2009

• That the « Treaty of Copenhagen » should approve of the principle of starting a process of definition and approval of a World Protocol on Water for the period 2010-2012.

• That the Conference of Copenhagen should recognise the urgency of a Political World Agreement on Water under the aegis of the United Nations and affirms the necessity for the international community to have at their disposal an effective action and world cooperation instrument such as the « United Nations Water Authority ».

SI St Helena Celebrates 25th Birthday

Soroptimist International

Why do 93,000 women in 3,000 clubs from 125 countries belong to Soroptimist International? Because they want to make a difference in today's world.

Soroptimist International is a world wide organisation for women in management and the professions, working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women.

The general structure of Soroptimist International is shown in the diagram below:

The Mission Statement for Soroptimist International is:

Through international partnerships and a global network of members, Soroptimists inspire action and create opportunities to transform the lives of women and girls by: advocating for equity and equality; creating safe and healthy environments, increasing access to education. Developing leadership and practical skills for a sustainable future.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead

Soroptimist International of Helena

Soroptimist International of Helena is one of 17 clubs in the Region of Western Australia and is a member of Soroptimist International of Australia and part of the Federation of the South West Pacific.

Our club was chartered on the 14 April 1984 with Dr Sheila Lungley as the Charter President.

The club logo depicting a vine leaf was designed by Charter member Josephine McMullan. The objective of the design was to produce an attractive, meaningful insignia at nominal cost.

The current President wears the club insignia to meetings and important functions. The design incorporates the blue Helena River flowing over a green enamel vine leaf. This depicts the area where our members live and the major industry of grape growing and wine making in the Swan Valley.

This is surrounded by a raised silver octagon, the centre of which is serrated to form the vine leaf. It is inscribed with the words "Soroptimist International of Helena".

Soroptimist International of Helena Club Jewel and Chain of Office

The insignia hangs on a Chain of Office which lists all the previous Presidents and the term that they served.

For 2009 our President is Kim Kennedy with Rosalie Gordon as President Elect.

Swiss Clubs Bad Ragaz and Chur in Mali

Swiss Clubs Bad Ragaz and Chur in Mali with Roswitha Ott, SI / E Project Manager Africa and Club Bamako Lumière and Club Bamako Espoir

Wonderful meetings in a colourful country

Help for the people in Mali

Wonderful meetings in a colourful country

6 women of the Swiss Clubs Bad Ragaz and Chur could take the possibility to accompany Roswitha Ott, SI / E Project Manager Africa, on her journey to Mali. Once not only listen to Roswitha’s report on the projects in progress and on the new plans for the future, but visit an African country ourselves and see, what problems people, and especially women and children, daily has to face, was a deeply touching experience.

At November the 5 we arrived in Bamako, the capital city of Mali, and were warmly welcomed by the sisters of the two clubs in the city; Club Bamako Lumière and Club Bamako Espoir.

In the following three days we visited the villages of Diffémou, Sanankorobougou, Soukoulabougou, Bla and Tallo and saw impressive achieved work.

In Diffémou and Sanankorobougou we saw the new built wells. They go down to 23 meters, are functioning with India-pumps and work very well. Tablets on the wall of the wells tell the names of the financing Clubs and single persons.

In the small village of Diffémou we also visited the school with its 3 classrooms. Unfortunately the school is not in a good shape. Only two years ago the building was repaired as best as possible, but the rooms are already visibly dilapidated and the school is too small for the growing group of about 300 children. Happily the new school-toilets function very well and they are clean.

On Saturday, we had the honour to inaugurate the new wonderful well in Soukoulabougou. This new well in this small village, about 2 hours to drive from Bamako, will become a model for other wells in the region. It is also around 23 meters deep, well protected, with two water places for animals and in the Soroptimist colours. To build the well cost about 5’000 Euro and was financed by a couple in the area of the Club Bad Ragaz.

The sisters of the Club Bamako Espoir, which their work on the scene, were helping enormous that this well has been built so well.

In all visited villages we were very impressed, how good the wells are maintained and how estimate the people that help. A well in their area makes live much easier and the clean water supports health. Every visit was accompanied by dancing and music, by gifts and speeches from different persons. What colourful, friendly meetings!

Back in Bamako we visited the project of the school of the nuns of Marie Immaculée, where 22 girls with difficult backgrounds can get basic school instructions and an apprenticeship as tailors in a three year program. The school few is payed by Swiss godmothers. Roswitha Ott is looking year for year that it is possible for the young girls to continue their studies. After a sight in to the lessons, Roswitha Ott had the pleasure to announce the opening of next step of the project, a tailor studio named “Salon de l’ Espoir Brigitte”.

The first two girls who finished the three year program will have an income from their work in the salon.

Another highlight of our journey was the afternoon in the school of Talo. As we arrived, the whole area was gathered under the trees in front of the school. Again there were thanks on both sides, music and dance and at the end our Club-President, Martha-Maria, had to kick off the traditional football-match between the eldest students and the teachers.

Later on our journey, on the way to the sisters of the Club Alliance in Timbuktu, we visited several villages of different ethnic groups. It was always very impressive to see the people on her daily activities, to see all the children and take a short look into a different world. A world that often seems cheerful and happy but in which the poverty and the lack of perspectives are nearly always present. Above all, the children, standing around, having no possibility to go to school, begging, being without any elder person who visibly care about them, filled our hearts and brought several questions and discussions.

After nearly 1000 kilometers from Bamako to Timbuktu; through fields of millet, zones with Baobab-trees, deep-green rice plants and bright-yellow steppe and endless open countryside we were again very well welcomed by the sisters in Timbuktu. There, we visited first a school for children from poor families and could see how motivated the students are.

Later we walked through the legendary town of Timbuktu while Roswitha Ott saw other realised projects and studied new ones.

The Club of Alliance (Timbuktu/Mali) was chartered in 2006 and since then the Club has initiated a lot of projects and hast become a strong and active group.

We met the women of the Club for a very special dinner at the roof of Madame Aissa Baba Touré’s house. There was a lot of chattering and laughing between the women and some new bonds between Mali and Switzerland have started, this evening.

A big “Thank you” to Roswitha Ott who gave us the opportunity to join her and to see some of her work and also a big, colourful “Thank you” to all the women who accompany us during our journey!

6. Dec. 2009 / Barbara Gmünder

Safe Water for a Safe Life

Our Programme: Safe Water for a Safe Life

Water makes our Earth different from other planets. It is our best friend and our worst enemy.

Water is the source of life, billions of years ago life originated in the seas and we still spend the first nine months of our life in amniotic fluid.

The largest part of our planet is covered with water but only 0,6% is available for human consumption and that makes it a precious and non-renewable resource.

. The worldwide water crisis exists and is serious, it is not only a problem for regions traditionally considered as lacking in water resources, the water problem has become global from a quantitative as well as from a quantitative perspective. The world economy has exploited, wasted and polluted so much that in 2007, for the first time, the withdrawal of water resources in the world outweighed the capability of this resource to renew itself.

Without water no food, one of the consequences of global warming is progressive desertification of certain regions in Africa with resulting crop failure and famine.

We humans are as guilty for the impending water disaster as is climate change.

We need 2 liters of drinking water each day but in the Western world we use 2000 liters for the production of our food, every day. To produce 1kg of wheat 1000 liters is needed and for 1 kg of meat it takes 13,000 liters.

The small percentage of fresh water available for human use is distributed very unequally.

The amount of water used daily by an American is 400 liters, by a European 200 liters, an African can dispose of 30 liters or less, and 5 liters a day is the absolute minimum needed to survive.

To quote Kofi Annan: What is needed along with fresh water is fresh thinking. We need to learn how to value water.

Water is the source of life, of food, but water also kills: 8 million die from water-related illnesses every year, 15 deaths every minute and most of them young children. In Sub Saharan Africa the child mortality rate under the age of 5 is 157 per 1000 compared to 4.6 per 1000 in Western Europe.

The only way to change those figures is to make access to clean water and adequate sanitation an unalienable right of all but also to oblige all to preserve and conserve water resources.

The WHO estimates that 80% of all illnesses in the world can be attributed to unsafe water, lack of sanitation and poor hygiene. In 2002, diarrhea caused 1, 8 million deaths; in developing countries they are at the origin of 21% of childhood deaths under the age of five.

In highly developed and industrialized countries the health hazards are related to water pollution by industrial waste. All of us remember the ecological disaster that occurred when a big chemical plant dumped its waste into the Rhine. Even without incidents, our water is polluted by chemicals such as phosphates, nitrates and pcb; pcb or poly chloro biphenyl is very toxic, the biodegradation is slow and it accumulates in fat tissue. You can even find it in significant amounts in mother’s milk. In fact, our bodies are so polluted that it would be unwise for a cannibal to eat us!

We have talked about the problems, now let’s look at solutions.

What can we, as Soroptimists, do?

We can implement projects dealing with each of those problems, projects about:

· Access to water

· Water purification

· Fair distribution and management of water

· Sanitation with a gender balanced approach

· Hygiene and health care

· Industrial pollution

· Waste water treatment

· Education/awareness about water and the environment

· Capacity building for women in regard to water and sanitation initiatives

· Sustainable agriculture

· Awareness raising about climate change

Those are a few possibilities and all of them can be addressed as Awareness, Advocacy or Action projects and can be related to the 10 Program Focus Objectives.

During the first two years an extraordinary amount of projects were implemented, for the next two years I have high expectations and I strongly encourage the clubs to focus on the vital importance of

Safe Water for a Safe Life

Dr. Eliane Lagasse (SI/E President)

soroptimistsgoforwater.nl

soroptimisteurope.org

Roswitha Ott - Mali Visit - Photo's

Roswitha Ott - SI/E Project Manager Africa - Mali Visit

Cutting the ribbon in the name of the sponsor

School in Tombouctou

Tailoring at the School of the nuns of Marie Immaculéé

The new well in Koriomé near Tombouctou (Financed by SI/E)

The well of Soukoulabougou

Our girls in teis school financed by godmothers

MALI VISIT of ROSWITHA OTT

MALI VISIT of ROSWITHA OTT, SI/E Project Manager Africa accompanied by six Soroptimists, 5-16 November 2009

Dear All

I am used to write factual reports of my visits to other countries. With Mali it is a bit different. It is a country so full of hospitality and friendliness. So please apologize when my emotions shine through from time to time. For the first time I was travelling with six members of my own Club Bad Ragaz who have helped me a lot during my nine years as Mama Africa. I wanted to show them the results of their work. For me and for them it was a very good experience. It was impressive to see the reactions of the six ladies to the work done in Mali by the Clubs of Mali and by SI/E and by the Club Bad Ragaz itself.

5 November 2009

Arrival in Bamako late at night. We were welcomed by many Soroptimists of the two Clubs Lumière and Espoir and the travelling office Amadou Traore.

6 November 2009

Diffémou

As always in Mali, the first trip goes to the long-term project Diffémou. The children welcomed us with enthusiasm and showed us the school and the new toilets. The very old building was repaired best we could two years ago: a new roof, new benches, new paint on the walls. But it is obvious that Diffémou needs a new schoolhouse with six rooms. Today 300 children go to school in three rooms in two groups, one in the morning, the other one in the afternoon.

The new well and the toilets function very well and are clean. But we were a bit disappointed that the medical centre was not open and the midwife not present.

School of the nuns of Marie Immaculée

Since 2005 many Swiss godmothers finance the 22 girls in the Centre of Marie Immaculée. This project has developed very well. The girls have learnt to read and write and after three years of basic instruction they can start an apprenticeship as tailors. Two of them have finished already and present their diplomas. The next step in this project is the opening of tailor studio called “Salon de l’Espoir Brigitte” where the girls who have finished their training can work as tailors and earn a living. Asked amount for room rent for the first year, 10 machines, tables and the material EUR 3’500.

7 November 2009

A water day in the area of Kati with Club Bamako Espoir

Water projects in Sanankorobougou

The population of Sanankorobougou welcomes us with music and dance. Everybody seams to be happy and so are we. This village has now two new wells financed by members of Club Bad Ragaz and my former students. It is good to see the very stable buildings. The wells are furnished with India-pumps, go down to 23 meters and work well.

Inauguration of the well of Soukoulabougou

What expected us in Soukoulabougou was overwhelming. The local authorities were there, the whole population and of course Mali TV. The well was just wonderful, a new model, in Soroptimist colours! 23 meters deep, well protected and with two water places for the animals. Everybody admired it. It was financed by a couple in my area in the name of their parents who had passed away one year ago. As everybody knew this, the festivity was very solemn and when cutting the ribbon, we begged for the blessing of the dead parents for the village and the water. The contact to the spirit of the ancestors impressed the listening population. For them the ancestors are important because they protect the living.

I left the place with two more projects in the same area, one in Kouloulabougou and a second one in Mountougoulabougou. And of course, it has to be the same model with two water places for the animals and in blue and yellow.

I would like to stop for a moment in my report and thank the Club Bamako Espoir and Aminata Traore for the big development work done during the past two years and the constant contact with me. Without this good communication the three wells would not spend the badly needed water to a population.

8 November 2009

Bla

Welcome by the women of Bla, where Club Liestal has helped after the devastating floods in 2008 with new donkeys, carts and tools by selling tulips from Amsterdam! The four wells in the vegetable garden and the fences were rebuilt by Club Kalmar in Sweden.

Village of Tallo

On the way to Tombouctou, Tallo is an inevitable stop. So many Clubs have worked for the development of Tallo under the guidance of Coumba Dembele Traore, a cityzen of Tallo who has dedicated her life to develop of her hometown. Coumba could not be with us because her husband had passed away. As his widow she has to stay in her house mourning for four month and ten days.

Tallo is a good model of development. It has a primary and a secondary school now, a medical centre, vegetable gardens two wells, a grain silo and a football team. I am convinced that also a football team can be a sign of development.

9-12 November 2009

San, Djenn, Bandiagara, Songo and Mopti

On all my trips in Africa I have not seen so much of the tourist sites of the countries. I usually run from one project to the other. With my six Sorores as company, this was now possible. Mali is a wonderful country with a great history and culture.

13-14 November 2009

On the way to Tombouctou and in Tombouctou

Seven hours drive on a sandy track, arrival on the river Niger and waiting for the ferry in a very poor nomad camp of Bozo fishermen. We finally arrived in Tombouctou at 16.00, where members of the Club Alliance expected us.

For my six accompanying sister the next day was dedicated to see the legendary town of Tombouctou. I myself visited our realized projects and studied new ones.

Club Alliance of Tombouctou was chartered in 2006. In the past three years the Club has become a well known and strong group, working to develop the town and the area.

Aissa Baba Kalil Touré, the founding President, is an important motor. The flier of the Club gives evidence of the manifold projects: a mill for the widows of Tombouctou, 27 girls of poor families put to school, building of a well in the poor nomad camp of Koriomé, a scholarship for Dr. Kadida Bocar to improve her knowledge as a medical doctor, medical equipment for the hospital, operation of ten women suffering from ostetric fistula, distribution of mattresses and mosquito nets to the poor population, and so on.

Of course all this was only possible with the help of SI/E and European Clubs. But the result is impressive.

Two new projects are presented to me: Toilets for Koriomé and water for Toya.

The women of Koriomé welcome me and show me with pride their new well financed by the SI/E Action Fund. Cholera and many other diseases have gone back with the clean water. What is missing in the big camp, are the toilets. Everybody uses the river Niger as toilet and further down people drink the same water. I take the new toilet project with me. Is now in the PEP, and I hope it finds sponsors (EUR 10’000).

Toya is too far away and also too dangerous for me to go there after the kidnapping of the two Swiss people. The Mayor of Toya, Mr. Jehia Konta, comes to see me in Tombouctou and presents a water project for 16’000 people in the area of Toya. It is a project with three partners, the ONG AMADE (Association du Mali pour le développement), Soroptimist International and the village Toya.

After a thorough discussion with my own Club Bad Ragaz, the members decide to finance this project (EUR 10’000). Club Alliance,Timbouctou is responsible for the realisation.

I thank all the Clubs of Mali for their warm hospitality, before all I want to thank the Presidents and Past-Presidents and Adama Sidibé and Aminata Traoré. It was a very fruitful trip, not only for, me but also for all the six Soroptmists accompanying me.

Maienfeld 26.11.09 Roswitha Ott, SI/E Project Manager Africa

Dr. Eliane Lagasse: Inauguration Speech

Dr. Eliane Lagasse: Inauguration Speech from Soroptimist Europe on Vimeo.

Soroptimist International of Europe's New President's Inaugural Speech during the 19th SI/E Congress in Amsterdam, 2009 Eliane Lagasse, next term (from October 1, 2009 to October 1, 2011. )

SI/E President delivers a speech outlining her vision of Soroptimists and the role of the organization in the building of a better world for women and children.

soroptimisteurope.org/en/multimedia/videos.html

webclip by Buzzmedia.net

International Friendship Weekend

Dear Soroptimists,

We will have an International Friendship Weekend in Budapest. Save this date please:

28-30 May, 2010 in Budapest / Hungary

More information can be sent to you late January.

For application please contact:

katalinjuhos@yahoo.com

Start Time:	Friday, 28 May 2010 at 09:00
End Time:	Sunday, 30 May 2010 at 21:00
Location:	Budapest / Hungary

President's message: Dr. Eliane Lagasse

(from www.soroptimistsgoforwater.nl)

Welcome to the ‘Water and Sanitation’ website of SI/ Europe, where you can find information about our water and sanitation related ‘projects and events’.

The Seventh Millenium Development Goal is to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Soroptimist International, whose mission is to create opportunities to change the life of women and girls, pledge their support to this goal.

An adequate supply of ‘clean water and sanitation for all’ is still an utopian ideal even in our western world. Industrial pollution and inappropriate agriculture are potential sources for problems and conflicts everywhere. Climate change with its hotter growing seasons and increasing water scarcity, is projected to reduce future harvests in much of the world, raising the spectre of a perpetual food crisis.

Health and easy access to health care are a necessity for a good life but one of the primary conditions for a healthy life are access to clean water and sanitation. Every day 30 000 people die of illnesses caused by foul or polluted water, every 8 seconds a child dies of diarrhea or other water related causes. This is totally unacceptable! I am convinced that Soroptimist International can and must make a difference!


I hereby dear ask every Soroptimist of the European Federation, during my presidency, to continue working on water and sanitation projects for the next 2 years. I urge to focus on health related projects. That means lobbying to regulate industrial pollution as well as sewage control or access to clean water and working on projects concerning health care, sanitation, irrigation and water.

This website will keep you updated on Soroptimist and international events, information and projects related to water, health and sanitation.

Would you like to participate in an existing water project or carry out your own idea’s ? The Project Exchange Pool is there for you to join in!

Are you seecking experience or would you like to share your knowledge please indicate your field of interest at the Experience Exchange Pool. It is co-operation where you give your time and professional expertise to help realize and so achieve a sustainable result.

During the International SI Convention in 2011, each Federation will be able to present its realizations. I am convinced that, after 4 years of hard work, we will be able to present excellent results on the Soroptimist go for Water theme!

Warm Soroptimist regards
Eliane Lagasse

Personal Message from Dr. Eliane Lagasse, President of the Federation of Soroptimist International of Europe (SI/E) from October 1, 2009 to October 1, 2011.

President's Theme: WATER

Dr. Eliane Lagasse has chosen water for her SIE President’s theme.

In line with the UN Millennium Development Goal to halve the number of people without safe drinking and basic sanitation by 2015, SI/E President Eliane Lagasse has chosen water as the theme for her term of office 2009-2011.

For more information, please click on the link:
www.soroptimistsgoforwater.nl

Four ways to feed the world

Four ways to feed the world - science-in-society - 18 November 2009 - New Scientist

IT IS humanity's oldest enemy. Despite all our science, a sixth of people in the developing world are chronically hungry.

At a summit in Rome this week, world leaders reaffirmed a pledge to end hunger "at the earliest possible date".

1 Hold on to water

2 Stop ploughing

3 Go back to basics

4 Boost yields

Click on above link to read full article!

Say NO - UNiTE

Soroptimist International is a Launch Partner for this new UNIFEM initiative and on behalf of Programme Director Dawn Marie please find links and information about
Say NO - UNiTE below:

Building on the momentum of the first phase, Say NO - UNiTE will now shift its focus on showcasing and counting actions online and on the ground, towards ending violence against women and girls.

Whether it is signatures for a petition, participants at an event to raise awareness, or outreach to school children for prevention… every action will count towards a global groundswell of activism on the issue.

UNIFEM have built an interactive web platform where advocates and organizations can build their own web pages and highlight their initiatives. This way, you can reach your national/local audiences and spread the word around the world – linking local and global advocacy on the issue. The initial goal is to reach 100,000 actions by March 2010 and 1 million actions in one year:

http://saynotoviolence.org

More information and tips on how to use the web platform is available here:

http://www.unifem.org/campaigns/sayno/kits/how_to_use_the_say_no_website.pdf

World Toilet Day- Tomorrow!

November 19 is World Toilet Day.
It might seem a bit ridiculous to have a special day dedicated to toilets.

BUT

· Think of the millions of people who have no access to adequate sanitation

· Think of how you should feel if you were obliged to go outside in the fields instead of disposing of a nice clean and private toilet

· Think of the thousands of girls who cannot go to school because they don’t dispose of separate toilets

· Think of all the people being ill or dying from contaminated water and poor hygiene

Our Federation theme focuses on clean water and sanitation, so it is appropriate for our Clubs to make a special effort for a sanitation project on this day. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every Club did a fund-raising activity to build one toilet? This would really make a difference.

Go to the PEP on our water website, www.soroptimistsgoforwater.nl and select a sanitation project.

Eliane Lagasse

SI/E President

How reputation could save the Earth

HAVE you ever noticed a friend or neighbour driving a new hybrid car and felt pressure to trade in your gas guzzler?

Or worried about what people might think when you drive up to the office in an SUV?

If so, then you have experienced the power of reputation for encouraging good public behaviour.

In fact, reputation is such an effective motivator that it could help us solve the most pressing issue we face - protecting our planet.

Read full article here:
How reputation could save the Earth - opinion - 15 November 2009 - New Scientist

Children sanitation alert

source: bbc.co.uk

Millions of children's lives are being put at risk each year because aid agencies and governments make wrong choices about health care priorities.

This is the conclusion of a new report from the charity WaterAid.

It says that diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation is killing many more children than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

The report says the global spending on HIV/Aids hugely outweighs the amounts spent on providing better sanitation.

Read full article HERE

Fabien Cousteau: Our Water Planet, Our Health: Part 3

Fabien Cousteau talks of the human impact on our (water) planet, affecting our health.
19th Soroptimist International of Europe Congress Amsterdam 2009
http://www.soroptimisteurope.org
webclip by http://www.buzzmedia.net

Who decides our fate?
Perhaps our planet decides our fate because of our actions, or in-actions?
Every ten minutes one distinct species disappears on our planet.
By 2050 only 60% of the world population will have sufficient access to clean drinking water.
It's not too late to change the course that we have set for ourselves.

Fabien Cousteau is a French aquatic filmmaker and oceanographic explorer. He is son of Jean-Michel Cousteau and grandson of the noted oceanographic explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

19th Nordic Soroptimist Meeting

Soroptimists come to Bergen!

Download the Invitation HERE

The themes of the meeting are:

I. Climate Change – How can we mitigate the effects of climate change and integrate sustainability into personal choices and government policies and programmes?

II.There will also be a follow up of the human trafficking theme run by all the Nordic Soroptimist Unions, launched in Reykjavik in 2008. We have invited a representative of GRETA, the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings appointed by the Council of Europe, to give us an update on its work and on the present situation in Europe regarding Trafficking.

On-line registration as of 1. December 2009: www.soroptimistnorway.no

Start Time:	Friday, 11 June 2010 at 01:25
End Time:	Sunday, 13 June 2010 at 04:25
Location:	Bergen, Norway

Time to take Tuna off the menu

The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is calling for curbs to be imposed urgently to prevent the collapse of stocks. A lucrative industry has developed based on catching shoals of migrating bluefin tuna, then putting them in offshore cages to fatten them on smaller fish before exporting them to Japan for sushi.

Spain leads this maritime bonanza, with the biggest tuna-fattening operation in the world off the south-east coast near Murcia, but Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia are joining in.

But it is in Spain where a handful of big companies are misusing EU funds, under-reporting their catch, disrupting the ecological balance of the western Mediterranean and depriving local rod-and-line anglers of a livelihood that dates from Roman times, the WWF claims.

Read full article here: Independent.co.uk

L'eau sur notre planète

Invitation - Water on our Planet - Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland (In French)

Les clubs de Lausanne • Lavaux • Montreux • Rolle • Vevey •
Yverdon-les-Bains du Soroptimist International
s’engagent pour l’eau et vous invitent à une conférence publique:

Enjeux écologiques, politiques et sociaux

mardi 17 novembre 2009 • 19h00

P R O G RA MME
• Dès 18h: Ouverture des portes et accueil
• 19h: Propos de bienvenue
• Allocution de madame la présidente de l’Union Suisse, Emma Brugnoli
• Conférence de monsieur le professeur Alexander J. B. Zehnder
• Présentation des deux projets choisis
• Apéritif dînatoire offert

Entrée libre et collecte en faveur des projets présentés.

(Aula des Cèdres / Avenue de Cour 25 • 1007 Lausanne)

Read PDF invitation here:
Invitation - Water on our Planet - Conference in Lausanne, Switzerland (In French)

Let’s be THE global voice for women!

Soroptimists are always committed to act and shake the world!

Let’s be THE global voice for women!

We look forward to your comments and suggestions!

soroptimist.europe@googlemail.com

Project of the Month: Submit!

As of this month, we will have a project of the month up on the www.soroptimisteurope.org website.

This project will be chosen from the selection of Programme Focus Reports submitted the previous month.
A small selection procedure will then reveal the winner on the website!

In this way, your projects as well as your C/Union will receive more
publicity.

So please keep submitting your PFRs onto

http://www.reports.soroptimistinternational.org

Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change

ScienceDaily (2009-11-03) -- Deep-sea ecosystems occupying 60 percent of the Earth's surface could be vulnerable to the effects of global warming, warn scientists. Long-term climate change is likely to influence both deep-sea communities and the chemistry of their environment.

Read full article here:

Science DailyDeep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change

View Fabien Cousteau's speech, during the SI/E Water Congress in Amsterdam, on how human impact on our (water) planet is affecting our health.

Click for Webclip on Youtube

Climate Change Could Create Agricultural Winners And Losers In East Africa

ScienceDaily (2009-11-03) -- As African leaders prepare to present an ambitious proposal to industrialized countries for coping with climate change in the part of the world that is most vulnerable to its impacts, a new study points to where and how some of this money should be spent. The study projects that climate change will have highly variable impacts on East Africa's vital maize and bean harvests over the next two to four decades.

Read full article here:

sciencedaily.com

Fabien Cousteau: Our Water Planet, Our Health: Part 2

Over the years, the blue marble has begun to show signs of serious failing health.

Garbage patches the size of Canada are suffocating our wildlife.
If animals are dying, guess who's next?

How much more before the public has had enough of this inaction that is poisoning not only our planet but all of our children?

Fabien Cousteau talks of the human impact on our (water) planet, affecting our health.

19th Soroptimist International of Europe Congress
Amsterdam 2009

http://www.soroptimisteurope.org
webclip by http://www.buzzmedia.net

Climate map: 4-Degree Celsius Rise

A new map of the world that details the likely effects of a failure to cut carbons emissions has been developed by Met Office scientists

"A 4C world would have a major impact on water availability, with supplies limited to an extra billion people by 2080. It could also be very bad news for the Amazon, with some computer models predicting severe drying and subsequent die-back. One of the biggest, more subtle, effects could be on the way the world's oceans and ecosystems absorb carbon. About half of our carbon emissions are currently soaked up in this way, which helps put the brake on global warming. In a 4C world, scientists say the amount of emissions re-absorbed in this way could shrink to just 30%."

Read entire article on Guardian.co.uk (source)

Plovdiv Soroptimist Club Annual Ball 11-13.12.2009

Programme

11.12.2009

10:00 – 16:30 Welcome at Sofia Airport, transportation to Plovdiv;
Welcome in Plovdiv
18:30 – 19:00 Check in at Bulgaria Hotel or Odeon Hotel, Plovdiv
19:00 – 22:00 Dinner and Christmas Charity Ball at Trimontsium Hotel

12.12.2009

07:00 – 10:00 Breakfast
10:00 – 13:00 Guided tour in the Old Town of Plovdiv and Soroptimist project:
”Water is life” – club Plovdiv (our enormous project, aiming to reconstruct 8 fountains for drinkable water in the city of Plovdiv)

Visits to:
Roman Amphitheatre
St. Konstantin and Elena Church
Arts Gallery
13:00 – 15:00 Shopping and sightseeing in Plovdiv
15:00 – 17:00 Free time
17:15 – 18:00 Transportation to the village of Brestovica - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brestovitsa,_Plovdiv_Province
18:15 – 21:30 Dinner and Wine-tasting at the boutique Wine-cellar Todoroff –
http://www.todoroff-wines.com/new2/en/index2.htm
21:30 – 22:15 Transportation back to Plovdiv

13.12.2009

07:00 – 10:00 Breakfast
10:30 Departure or visit to Bachkovo Monastery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachkovo_Monastery

Note: For people arriving on Thursday – December 10th, 2009, an additional tour guide of Sofia will be organized
For people leaving on Sunday – December 13th, 2009, an additional tour guide to Bachkovo Monastery or Starosel Tracian Tomb will be organized


www.soroptimisteurope.org


Package price: 195 Euro / per person

Price includes:
Dinner and Christmas Charity Ball at Trimontsium Hotel;
2-night accommodation at Bulgaria Hotel in Plovdiv;
Transportation from Sofia to Plovdiv and back;
Dinner and Wine-tasting at the boutique Wine-cellar Todoroff;
Guided tour in the Old Town of Plovdiv.

Any extras are to be paid additionally on site:
Accommodation on Dec 10th /Thursday/ or Dec 13th /Sunday/
Entrance fees to historical monuments
Guided tour in Sofia
Guided tour to Bachkovo Monastery or Starosel Tracian Tomb


Contact person: Assoc. Prof. Dilyana Vicheva, MD, PhD (president of the club Plovdiv); email: dilyanav@yahoo.com

With Soroptimist greetings - Dilyana Vicheva, president 2008-2010, club Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Learning from Durban –How to manage water and sanitation in our cities

ARTICLE from switchwatersummit.wordpress.com

The city of Durban has a water supply and sanitation utility run by a company called Ethekwini Water and Sanitation Services. It provides 900 million litres of water per day to around 400,000 connections in the Durban area. It collects 500 million litres of wastewater per day and treats it all in 29 decentralised wastewater treatment plants.

There are several interesting ideas being tried out by the utility which needs a close study by water utilities in India.

As a pro-poor policy the utility is committed to delivering 6000 litres of water a month free to households as part of the South African governments policy of treating water as a human right. It does so by providing a 200 litre poly-tank in every household which is filled up every night between the hours of 12.00 and 2.00. Every family is thus given access to 200 litres of water daily, without any connection charge or meter charge. Of course subsequent water is metered and charged on an Increasing Block Tariff based on consumption.

READ FULL ARTICLE on Switch Water Summit

Water Should Be A Human Right

ScienceDaily -- Experts argue that -- despite recent international objections -- access to clean water should be recognized as a human right. At the March 2009 United Nations meetings, coinciding with the World Water Forum, Canada, Russia and the United States refused to support a declaration that would recognize water as a basic human right. But this flies in the face of considerable evidence that access to water, which is essential for health, is under threat, argue the editors of PLoS Medicine.

Read article here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090629211809.htm#

Sanitation: Health, Dignity and Development

This video is shot by a local African reporter in Ethiopia. The envisioned project, by HORCO and supported by Women for Water Partnership, aims to capture & protect 2 springs, construct 2 water distribution points, and train women in sanitation, primary health care, horticulture production & small scale business operations. You can support and follow this project online on the Akvo platform at: http://www.akvo.org/rsr/project/50/

and visit Soroptimists Go For Water to find out how investing in sanitation strengthens health, dignity and development.

Fabien Cousteau: Our Water Planet, Our Health; Part 1 Video by Soroptimist International of Europe - MySpace Video

Fabien Cousteau: Our Water Planet, Our Health; Part 1 Video by Soroptimist International of Europe - MySpace Video

Linked in!

We have just joined the Linkedin.com platform, join us and communicate!
http://www.linkedin.com/in/soroptimisteurope

Opening to SI/E Amsterdam Congress

For those of you who could not attend the event, here's the passionate opening address by SIE President Mariet Verhoef-Cohen at 19th Soroptimist International Congress in Amsterdam.

Over the coming weeks we will be streaming extracts from the keynote speakers' addresses on this platform. Please watch this space in the weeks ahead. The speakers include Fabien Cousteau, with powerful messages on the impending water crisis, sanitation and women's health.

Tackling the current global water crisis

SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF EUROPE 19^TH European Congress

The theme of this year’s congress, “Soroptimists go for water” is a highly topical issue.

Tackling the current global water crisis signifies working to preserve an invaluable local heritage in each and every country. By adopting this theme, European Soroptimists continue to strive for Peace. Indeed, how can we build peace if natural resources are being degraded to the point of scarcity? It is impossible to achieve sustainable social and economic development without a well thought out strategy for addressing ecological issues. Lack of safe drinking water is a key element, already underlying various areas of conflict.

It is women who bear the brunt of the problem of water shortage. And women must be fully involved in the management of this vital resource.

The SI congress in Amsterdam demonstrates the determination of European Federation Soroptimists to take on this challenge. The high quality speakers and ensuing discussions will surely serve to enhance our awareness of the scale of the problem.

Monique Riviere
SI/E Federation President
2005-2007