SIGBI


Women’s Empowerment &


Girls’ Education


Sue Challoner, Assistant Programme Director, Economic & Social Development, SIGBI, reports


Members of SI Ipsae and SI Port Louis have joined forces with other organisations and associations in Mauritius to work for women’s empowerment on this island. WIN or Women in


to become future leaders in society. The Leadership


Networking was created on 30 June 2006 in order to develop at least 30 women leaders each year and to double the number of women in the National Assembly. The Women’s Leadership Programme was established to promote gender equality in all spheres of life and provide women with the skills and techniques required to empower them to become more active members of society at all levels- economic, social and political, also to gain the confidence required


Programme consists of 18 modules, which include nine days of training. It is free to participants and to date 95 women have been trained in leadership skills. The network has lobbied all political parties for more women in politics, and the results have been excellent, from the last intake of 12 women, two have been elected as Members of Parliament. A huge advertising


campaign was launched this year by WIN and the photograph shows the eye- catching billboard poster which could be seen all over the island and was funded by the US Embassy in Mauritius.


Journalist and keynote speaker at the SIGBI Conference re- enforced the message that one key action to help keep girls at school was to provide proper sanitation so that girls feel able to attend school following the onset of puberty. SIGBI clubs have been


Helen Owen: Assistant Programme Director, Education, SIGBI, reports Lesley Abdela MBE, Political


Region and SI Barnstaple, are committed to educate girls to a higher level. In the difficult times in Zimbabwe, many girls dropped out of school because of being HIV orphaned or having parents unable to afford the fees. Fundraising efforts help to


contributing to Loos For Lynn, a fund set up in memory of Past International President Lynn Dunning. Partial grants have been awarded for building toilets for a school in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a toilet block for a school in Lagos, a Midland Arden project helping to build toilets for a women’s centre near Kampala and a toilet block for women in a hospital in Bamenda, Cameroon. SI Bulawayo, with help from friendship links in Yorkshire


Education and Leadership Initiatives in SI South West Pacific


Robyn Cain, Federation Programme Director SISWP reports


Soroptimists are often at the forefront in promoting education and leadership and South West Pacific clubs are no exception. SI Townsville and its Friendship Link SI


Noumea and SI Solomon Islands worked together to support a local chief’s daughter in her desire to rebuild an education facility in a poor, isolated village. The village was able to establish a literacy programme for children up to eight years. SI Townsville also works with a multicultural group to improve migrant women’s English and familiarise them with the local culture. Clubs support disadvantaged students in their quest for education by giving scholarships. SI Penang established an education fund for needy students, SI Business on Collins works with the Victoria University to provide a tertiary education scholarship to an indigenous woman studying a Bachelor’s Degree and SI Damansara, Malaysia conducts a Literacy


project amongst children in homes for the underprivileged. The competition has seen a vast improvement in the English proficiency of these children. SI Kapiti Coast lobbied local MPs to


increase funding for Early Childhood Education for minority groups within the community. South West Pacific supports women


and girls in their efforts to advance in management and decision making. SI Rockingham, SI Gold Coast, SI Riverside and other Western Australian clubs have all sponsored young women to attend Leadership Development camps. In Fiji, Soroptimists established garden plots at a special school where women train as co-ordinators for agricultural development programmes. Women who acquire skills through these programmes then deliver the knowledge to assist other rural women to utilise their land.


High school girls at SI Logan’s Leadership Day


high school girls for them to meet role models and identify leadership skills. The President of SI Ramu in Papua New


SI Logan facilitated a Leadership Day for


Guinea, Judy Muliap attended high level meetings for discussions about CEDAW at the UN in New York, with Dame Carol Kidu and at the Pacific Government-NGO Dialogue towards effective implementation of CEDAW and Ratification of the Optional Protocol. Another PNG member, Florence Bunari, was accepted to attend the Jakarta workshop on Global Women in Management.


Women in Local Government aiming to increase the participation of women in decision-making, management and leadership training and mentoring programmes in local government.


TIS December 2010 Page 11 In Australia, 2010 was the Year of SISWP


pay for tuition and examination fees, textbooks and uniforms. Some of the girls have graduated from university and are already employed - one paying back money allows another to be helped. SI Bonaberi Douala Cameroon recently reported that a project they have started has produced its first graduates. Ten previously illiterate women passed the first level exams. With support from Midland


East Region, the club is now determined to help the women succeed at the secondary level.


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