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
(Australia) supported a ‘Real Me Shine’ Programme, teaching girls at a
local school to value themselves and make better choices, through sessions on
self-awareness, healthy lifestyles and healthy relationships. (PFR 35417)

SI Downpatrick and
District (UK) produced and launched a leaflet to raise public awareness
about the impacts of Climate Change and how we may address this challenge both
on a local and global scale. Domestic lifestyles often chosen by women have a
significant impact on Climate Change. The launch event featured expert speakers
and leaflets have been distributed to local councils, schools, libraries and
community centres (PFR 35295)

SI Bangalore’s (India) Bead to Lead
project enables young women to improve their skills and therefore own
employment and income. Bead to Lead is a jewellery workshop. The money earned
at the end of the workshop allowed the women to send their children to school
for a year. (PFR35360)

SI Club Hannover 2000 (Germany) realised that women who were
formerly addicted to drugs found it hard to get back on their feet after
quitting and needed more support. SI provided art therapists for art
therapy/art workshop once a week for 3 to help women to use their creativity
and other skills to cope with life and become more confident and motivated (PFR
34792)

SI Club de Tolanaro (Madagascar) worked with two other NGOs
to distribute seed yam to women and train them in planting techniques to help
improve their food security and give them greater independence (PFR 35287)

SI Izmir (Turkey) helped to give mothers of sick children
time off. The club helped with play such as getting the families to perform
drama together, helping develop friendships between the mothers. These mothers
now spend time with each other outside the hospital while SI members spend time
with the kids indoors. (PFR 35356)

As part of a Fiji-wide programme, SI Suva distributed
compost bins and helped to teach students about a healthy environment. City
council, students and teenagers were encouraged to recycle. (PFR 35375)

SI Selby (UK) wanted to make a card that all women and
teenagers could with contact details for domestic violence, rape crisis and
sexual health services numbers. As women at-risk of domestic violence are often
monitored or controlled by the perpetrators, we needed to find a way to make
them acceptable. To do this we added general numbers such as health, police,
crime-stoppers, alcohol and drugs, Samaritans and Debt services. The cards have
been distributed to homeless shelter, drugs workers, domestic abuse service,
health visitors and the local college. PFR35282

SI Ceres (USA) runs fun workshops for girls in junior high to
raise awareness of internet safety, body image, etiquette and relationships
while giving them a fun and informative workshop and making them feel valued. The
girls are selected by school Prinicipals as those who may need support.  One girl commented "Today, talking about
self confidence really made me think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like
her reflection in the mirror, but thanks to the Soroptimist, it changed the way
I saw myself”. (PFR35333)

SI Palm Desert (USA) and other clubs in their region have
supported the Soroptimist House of Hope for 32 years; it is a 6-bed,
residential and family-style recovery home for women who seek recovery from
their substance abuse disorders. This latest fundraiser raised money to donate toiletries
for clients. (PFR 34624)

Soroptimist International club members can read more about these
projects by logging into the Programme Focus Reporting system and
searching for the project report. For the first time this month, the report number is included with each description to
help you search.