Betty Loughhead Turland, who served as Soroptimist International President from 1983 to 1985, died peacefully last week in Christchurch, New Zealand. In a message of sympathy to the Soroptimist International South West Pacific Federation, President Ann Garvie described her as "a most delightful lady who served our organisation with

Photo: Opening of the High-level Segment of ECOSOC (UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras) Soroptimist International is setting out its vision for the Post-2015 development agenda at the key annual meeting of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), taking place in New York this week. In official written and oral interventions to

  The first United Nations Environment Assembly met in Nairobi, Kenya, from 23-27 June and Soroptimist International UN Representative Dr Alice Odingo was there to ensure that the voices of women were heard. The UNEA is the highest-level UN body ever convened on the environment, bringing together over 1200 participants

Soroptimist International now has clubs in 130 countries and territories worldwide, thanks to the chartering of SI Northern Mariana Islands with 18 founder members.  A territory of the United States, the Northern Mariana Islands are located east of the Philippines and south of Japan and consist of three islands, Saipan,

See some of the latest Soroptimist International club projects to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women and girls around the world in this round up of actions reported in June 2014.  View the slideshow below (or see on Flickr here) and read more in the descriptions below.  SI Mackay

“Together, we committed to break the taboo around wartime rape and take action to put an end to its use, and to shatter the culture of impunity… We pledged our support for engendering a global shift in attitudes towards sexual violence, causing a lasting and profound shift, transforming world opinion. 

1st United Nations Environment Assembly SI’s UN Reps in Nairobi, Alice Odingo and Rose Mwangi, are making SI’s presence felt at the world’s first UN Environment Assembly. Alice is chairing the thematic group on “Financing the Green Economy”, and our reps will be drafting the statement on that subject. “Be

  Soroptimists from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, SI International President Ann Garvie and SI Europe Federation President Ulla Madsen were among nearly 20,000 participants at a conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Nordic Forum - New Action on Women's Rights in Malmö , Sweden from 12-15 June,

Whilst the Ending Sexual Violence Global Summit was happening in London, Soroptimist International UN Reps were busy attending parallel events in UN Centres across the world. The message that came out of events in New York and Geneva was clear: to end sexual violence against women, coherent and cooperative policies