A special blog from the 20th Congress of Soroptimist International of Europe, 12-14 July 2013, by SI International Programme Director Hilary Ratcliffe.

What an amazing experience being with Soroptimists from all over the world at the Congress in Berlin! It all started so well with a very special evening at the Jewish museum, where we shared an extraordinary evening of poetry, prose and Jewish music. Languages ranged from Yiddish to Hebrew to German to English and lastly American with readings from Dorothy Parker. Sitting under the glass roof looking at the clouds, we were wrapped in the entertainment.

The theme of the Congress is Visions of Paradise: Soroptimists go for water and food so all the sessions are themed around this. Just to give a flavour, we had a remarkable presentation from Dr Auma Obama from Kenya. She is the sister of Barack Obama. A very powerful speaker, she told us about her vision to empower young people to stop being victims and to take possession of their own destiny by using what they have, usually land, and staying in the village to exploit this resource. She does this through her foundation Sauti Kuu by training, sport, drama, self-expression, song, dance and communication.Through these means, young people build self-esteem so that in the end the young person has to solve their own problems using their strong voice. Her mantra is "use what you have to get what you need"

Today we have had a panel discussion on "Too hungry, too satisfied? What can we do against it?". In the panel we learnt about a new project to produce "tomato fish", not literally but fish using the water economically to also produce tomatoes using less water resources and more fish together.  We were also told about Expo 2015 to be held in Milan; the chairwoman of this important conference is a Soroptimist Dr Diana Bracco from the Milano Fondatore club.

We were challenged by Selina Juul to stop wasting food. She told us about her Facebook campaign in Denmark that has been able to change behaviour so that a large group of food stores has agreed to stop multiple discounts and a restaurant chain to provide doggie bags.

Challenges that were set out for all:

• Don’t turn your refrigerator into a graveyard!
• Encourage the involvement of women into the food chain.
• Think about the food you eat.
• Involve communities in decisions.
• And most important "be the change you want to see".

We had a very moving tribute to Past-President Eliane Lagasse. We celebrated her life and her work as a great Soroptimist.  We had inspiring reports from all four Federations. And at the end of the morning, we joined singing together to cement our global friendship. Talking of friendship, many of the 1700 delegates went on buses hosted by Soroptimist from Berlin and surrounding clubs. We experienced wonderful hospitality and visits ranging from an astro physics laboratory to Charlottenberg Palace to a walk around a special quarter called Nikolaividrtel,a boat trip on the Spree all followed by food, fun and friendship. Exactly what Soroptimism is all about!