THE meeting held at the South Crest Manor hotel on Thursday was a very lively and busy meeting after the summer break. Margaret Tool, our president, welcomed two new prospective members Eithnie Harborne and Liz Every, also our regional president for Midland Arden Region, Jill Yarwood, and our speaker for the evening Paul Fisher from Water Aid. Paul Fisher gave us a very enlightening talk about the problems Water Aid face in getting water supplies into regions of the world not as fortunate as ourselves. He also made us aware of the problems that exist in these regions with the lack of sanitation.

Just one example, 748 million people worldwide live without safe water and 2.5 billion people live without a toilet. Not only did this help us realize how lucky we are, it also made us aware of how much work is still needed to continue their efforts in this field. The £427 raised by members on our sponsored walk during the summer was donated to this cause.

After the induction of our lively new club member Sheila Hartwell, the business of the evening commenced with a resume of the events that had taken place over the summer.

The Steam Train Journey, Sarah’s BBQ, the Sponsored Walk and Gail’s Tea Party, where Steven Thrush was presented with a cheque for Worcestershire Breast Cancer Unit. Bromsgrove and Redditch Soroptimist’s have raised over £13,500 for this cause over the last three years. Over the summer £315 was also raised for this year’s ongoing local charity, The Basement Project. Other matters that were discussed. We are still short of urgently needed items for the Chalala Hospital in Zimbabwe.

Arrangements were to be made to meet up with our new Friendship link, the Burton upon Trent Group.

A trip to Bletchley Park was discussed as a follow up to the last book club choice, and the Christmas meal has been organised for December 10 at Bramley Cottage. Finally we were asked to think about how we would like to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2016.

Soroptimist’s focus on transforming the lives of women and children locally, nationally and globally through education, empowerment and enabling. Anyone considering joining us will find a very lively and interesting group of members.

Bromsgrove and Redditch Club meets every second Thursday monthly at the South Crest Manor Hotel Redditch. Further information for anyone interested in joining us is available on sigbi.org or call 07799482444.