Friday, 8 May 2009
Monday, 4 May 2009
SOROPTIMISTS INTERNATIONAL OF EUROPE Facts:
Facts:
- A human being needs two buckets of water per day to be able to drink, wash their hands and to prepare a simple meal.
- Worldwide 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people have no basic sanitation.
- In 2005 around 4,500 children died every day due to malnutrition and diseases such as diarrhea and typhoid fever. These children don’t even reach the age of five.
- The consequences of polluted drinking water and the lack of basic sanitation and hygiene are far reaching. Millions of people hover between life and death because of constant diseases, and have no opportunity whatsoever to educate themselves.
- A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water.
So far, SI/E has donated € 700,000 to water related projects
GO TO THE FOLLOWING SITE FOR DETAILS OF OUR PROJECTS:
http://www.soroptimistsgoforwater.nl/SoroptimistsgoforWater/WaterProjects/tabid/67/Default.aspx
1.6. 
SI club Rhenen/Veenendaal, Netherlands.
Project: Renovating Kindergarten "Guguta", Tataresti, Moldavia
more..
1.5. 
SI club Pannonia Oberpullendorf Austria.
Project: Khungwani Community Water project Kenya
more..
1.4. 
Fonds Soroptimist Luxembourg.
Project: Drinking-water and collecting of rain-water in the Training
Centre San Marco, Rwanda
more...
1.3. 
SI club of Cochem/Mosel, Germany.
Project: Fountain for Difémou in Mali, Africa. (Finished March 2007)
more...
1.2. 
SI club of Busto Arsizio - Ticino Olona, Italy.
Project: "Water - a precious, finite resource". (Finished February 2007)
more...
1.1. 
SI club of Accra Unitity, Ghana.
Project: Clean water and toilets for Dodowa (Finished 2005)
more...
SOROPTIMISTS GO FOR WATER/JULY CONGRESS
‘Soroptimists go for water’ http://soroptimistsgoforwater.nl
As 2005 – 2015 is the UN Decade of Fresh Water and Basic Sanitation, Soroptimist International of Europe is actively contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goal.
SI/E continues to support people living without sustainable access to safe and affordable drinking water and basic sanitation.
Building on our social involvement and commitment as a NGO, Soroptimist International of Europe plans to bring this important water issue and our SI objectives into the limelight at the Congress. We need swift and decisive action rather than creating more policies. Sanitation is fundamental to dignity and water is the essence of life. As women are always central when it comes to providing the necessities of life, it stands to reason that we actively contribute to this incentive.
So far, we donated €700,000 to water related projects and we are not done yet!
SI/E is an INTERNATIONAL organization; this is an opportunity for Soroptimists from 57 countries to attend – be one of them!
There will be WATER PROJECT presentations, and a huge board on display representing the projects which will be seen by all. You'll meet the clubs that took on these projects and also the members from the countries where these projects were implemented.
During the Congress you will find goodwill and understanding and you'll make friends for life.
Join hands to improve the lives of women and girls in their local communities throughout the world! - start in Amsterdam this summer!
Join us for a rewarding and fulfilling weekend in Amsterdam – 10 to 12 July 2009!
Mariet Verhoef-Cohen
Monday, 27 April 2009
SOROPTIMISTS DONATE € 700,000 TO WATER PROJECTS
MAIN THEME
‘Soroptimists go for water’ http://soroptimistsgoforwater.nl/SIECongress/tabid/72/Default.aspx
As 2005 – 2015 is the UN Decade of Fresh Water and Basic Sanitation, Soroptimist International of Europe is actively contributing to the UN Millennium Development Goal ‘to halve the number of people living without sustainable access to safe and affordable drinking water and to basic sanitation by 2015’.
Building on our social involvement and commitment as a NGO, Soroptimist International of Europe plans to bring this important water issue and our SI objectives into the limelight at the Congress. We need swift and decisive action rather than creating more policies. Sanitation is fundamental to dignity and water is the essence of life. As women are always central when it comes to providing the necessities of life, it stands to reason that we actively contribute to this incentive.
So far, we donated € 700,000 to water related projects and we are not done yet! SI/E is an INTERNATIONAL organization; this is an opportunity for Soroptimists from 57 countries to attend – be one of them!
There will be WATER PROJECTS presentations, and a huge board on display representing the projects which will be seen by all. You'll meet the clubs that took on these projects and also the members from the countries where these projects were implemented.
During the Congress you will find goodwill and understanding and you'll make friends for life. Join hands to improve the lives of women and girls in their local communities throughout the world! What better way than to start in Amsterdam this summer!
Join us for a rewarding and fulfilling weekend in Amsterdam – 10 to 12 July 2009!
Mariet Verhoef-Cohen
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Fabien Cousteau to speak at Soroptimist Water Congress Amsterdam
Cousteau will focus his speech on, among other things, the urgent need on the part of the developed world to facilitate in making clean, drinkable water available to impoverished communities in developing nations; a need that is also expressed in the theme of this year’s congress: ‘Soroptimists Go For Water!’
According to incumbent President of Soroptimist International of Europe, Mariet Verhoef-Cohen: “We need to take swift and decisive action rather than create more policies. Sanitation is fundamental to dignity, and water is the essence of life. As women are always central when it comes to providing the necessities of life, it stands to reason that we actively contribute to this incentive.” The name Soroptimist stands for ‘sorores’ or ‘sisters’ and ‘optimum’ or ‘the best; in other words, ‘the best for women’.
Soroptimist International of Europe is currently involved in scores of water-related and other projects to empower women and children in Africa, Eastern Europe, Haiti, including drilling and constructing clean water wells, pumps and building schools and sanitation and healthcare facilities in remote villages that are often overlooked by local authorities.
According to Immediate Past President, Monique Rivière: “As 2005 – 2015 is the UN Decade of Fresh Water and Basic Sanitation, Soroptimist International of Europe will actively contribute to the UN Millennium Development Goal ‘to halve the number of people living without sustainable access to safe (and affordable) drinking water and to basic sanitation by 2015.”
Fabien Cousteau, who frequently accompanied his famous grandfather and father on their sea voyages, states in a number of video interviews that are available for viewing on the website of Soroptimist International of Europe, www.soroptimisteurope.org that “the efforts that the Soroptimists are making in less privileged communities, by building wells and making clean water available to those communities, is paramount to life, as this not only fulfils a basic need, but it also helps to combat diseases and mortality amongst women and children.”
All Soroptimist projects are developed and implemented as partnerships between European clubs and the women of the local clubs in the developing nations, including in Mali, Senegal, Benin, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia, Haiti, Madagascar and many other countries. The funding is made available thanks to private and corporate donations to Soroptimist International of Europe. President Verhoef-Cohen emphasizes that “every penny that is donated to the Soroptimists is invested directly in our projects in the underprivileged communities of Europe and Africa. Not one penny is kept.”
For more detailed information on Soroptimist International of Europe, visit our websites: http://www.soroptimisteurope.org and http://www.soroptimistsgoforwater.nl
For more information on this press release, please contact Michèle Aimé at info@buzzmedia.net
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL OF EUROPE's LETTER TO PRESIDENT KARZAI
SI/E is AGAINST DEPRIVING WOMENS’ RIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN
We would like to inform you of the SI/E Board’s reaction to the recent events occurring in Afghanistan. To summarise this situation for those of you unaware of the current atrocities taking place in Afghanistan, a law was just unanimously voted in by the Afghani Government, depriving Shiite Muslim women (20% of the population) of their basic human rights. President Karzai has signed this law, known as the ‘Shia Family Law’, but it has not gone into effect, as it must be published in the appropriate journal for it to become officially accepted.
These recent events have prompted SI/E to react to the different figureheads involved and those with the power to condemn this situation and prevent this law from ever coming into effect. We have sent letters to: Afghani President Karzai, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and High Commissioner Navaneetham Pillay, and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. You will find these attached to this email.
We ask you for your assistance in supporting our federation, by sending your own letters to your country’s leaders and imploring their involvement in eradicating this abhorrent law. You may use the letters attached as a sample, please just make sure to change the appropriate names and addresses where necessary.
You will find additional information regarding this breaking news story in the links posted below.
We thank you for your continuous support in matters such as these and we assure you that we will be monitoring this situation very closely and taking the necessary actions to reinforce our position, concerning this horrific example of basic human rights violation.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions
Warm regards.
President Mariet Verhoef-Cohen
SI/E President 2007-2009 on behalf of SI/E’s 3,500 members
Posts
