At CSW68 Soroptimist International of Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) held a virtual event, titled ‘Women Standing Up for Women to Mitigate Poverty’ which showcased Federation projects that help women and girls around the world.

SIGBI has 6,000 members in 270 clubs covering 18 countries including Great Britain, Ireland and countries in Asia, the Caribbean and Malta, who work at every level to educate, empower, and enable women and girls.

The presentation stated how the Federation works alone and in partnership with other organisations to help achieve three key SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) with the theme of alleviating poverty and what it leads to.

• SDG 1: To eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere.
• SDG 2: To end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
• SDG 3: To ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

 

To illustrate how SIGBI is helping to support these critical goals Meenakshi Ray of SI Calcutta Assistant Programme Director and Debra Joseph President of of SI Barbados described several education projects in their home countries that have benefitted women and girls. They were followed by Assistant Programme Directors Eleanor Evans and Ayushi Kundu who showcased some of SIGBI’s health initiatives. Shukla Chattopadhyay and Anitha Rajarajan, Assistant Programme Directors shared highlights from some of SIGBI’s food poverty alleviation projects.

Education is a powerful tool for alleviating poverty, it empowers individuals with the skills and knowledge that they need to secure better employment opportunities, improving their overall quality of life. Attendees at the event heard how SIGBI has donated over 300 books to two schools in St Vincent and the Grenadines and supported students in Barbados who were failing at Mathematics through a STEM/Mathematics programme.

Secondary schoolgirls in Barbados were also introduced to various engineering disciplines and to a scientific approach to problem solving. The gap in girls and women studying STEM subjects and going on to work in this field still needs addressing. SI Perth, in north Scotland supported the project ‘’Bright Future for Afghan Women’ by providing weekly online English language classes to enable Afghan women to learn in the safety of their homes.

It was particularly heartening to hear about the activities that SIGBI has been undertaking to help poor and marginalised women to access food security in the longer-term and to support SDG2. SIGBI is addressing food poverty issues with efforts to enable and empower women with greater livelihood options in fishing and farming to help promote sustainable agriculture. SIGBI clubs in Asia are supporting small scale food producers such as women working in the cultivation of crabs in Sundarbans in India. The SI club in Dhaka has helped train 20 women in Mymensingh, Bangladesh to be poultry and dairy farmers in partnership with Paragon and Muktagacha-Agro.

Programme Director Lindsay Green gave an absorbing overview of a SIGBI project that illustrates how the Federation uses creative thinking, along with local knowledge to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in Kathmandu in Nepal. Local women are in a weak position in society and are vulnerable to social exclusion, confined to unpaid domestic chores they are unable to contribute to the national economy.

Si Kathmandu set up poor, marginalised and single women to become goat farmers. These women have successfully established themselves, paid back their loans and in appreciation of the help they were given, they are offering kid goats to other women to help them set up as goat farmers as well. This was a wonderful example of paying it forward.

SI I Bombay Chembur has been running the ‘Fistful of Grain’ project which raises awareness of food poverty amongst children at several schools  and implements small ways of helping to alleviate hunger. Students help to collect and distribute bowls of food grains such as rice. These foods are distributed at the end of each month to people living in slum areas, elderly care facilities and orphanages. The project is designed to help end hunger but also builds empathy and compassion among young people.

To help realise SDG3 and enable women and girls to live healthier lives SIGBI has been supporting several health initiatives. The members of SI Calcutta arranged CPR training for women living in rural areas and to ensure they could attend provided participants with transport and food. In Trinidad SI Newton has been undertaking annual breast cancer awareness campaigns to encourage self-examination. SI Madurai in India are helping to increase knowledge of anaemia by providing blood tests, educating girls on the topic, and running a poster competition to help push the message.

Soroptimists in the UK, Caribbean, India, and Africa are running campaigns to ultimately eradicate this preventable disease, by researching the current situation in each country. This is done by raising awareness, increasing the uptake of vaccines and screening programmes to overcome the myths which prevent the uptake of the vaccine. SI Libertas, an e-club based in England is fundraising to support sister club SI Wakiso in Uganda with their project to build a centre for the treatment of cervical cancer. A statistic from the World Health Organisation states that every two minutes a woman dies from cervical cancer, underlining the need for support in this area, especially as it is usually the poorest who are most at risk.

SIGBI is also helping to tackle period poverty and many clubs across the world, including SI Kilcaldy in Scotland and SI Barbados are donating period products to those who cannot afford them, such as the homeless and women accessing women’s centres and refuges. Soroptimists in England are putting their weight behind the ‘Pants to Period Poverty’ project, which promotes the use of reusable period pants which last longer and are better for the environment as less period products go to landfill. The SI club in Plymouth secured funding to provide period pants to disadvantaged women and girls. Statistics show that one million girls in the UK have struggled to afford period products, and this has impacted their school attendance which can have a longer-term adverse effect on their employment prospects.

In wrapping up the event Lindsay Green talked about a Joseph Rowntree Foundation document, called UK Poverty 2023: The Essential Guide to Understanding Poverty in the UK, it states that during 2020/1, 13.4 million people were living in poverty in the UK. This is a startling figure and Lindsay shared how Soroptimists volunteer at food banks, provide recipe cards, donate food, clothing, and toys to shelters and refuges and help the homeless by making bags and sleeping sheets out of crisp packets.

SIGBI also helps those in need through their Diamond Education Grants, Benevolent Fund and Emergency Relief Fund. SIGBI clubs and members have also made loans of over £25,000 to micro-finance womens’ projects across the world using Kiva and Lend with Care.

Lindsay Green, shared a brief anecdote with attendees. She said that at a Town Hall event (New York, March 2024) she had met the UN Secretary General, António Guterres and he said to her: “In the fight for gender equality, go for it and take no prisoners.”  This was a fitting end to a wonderfully informative and inspiring event.