Soroptimist International South Africa

Meetings
When: Third Monday of every month

Where: Priory of St John,
19 Woolston Road, Westcliff

Time: 17:30
Contact details
Postal address:
PO Box 411402, Craighall, 2024
President:
Claudia Holgate
011-662 2276 (w)
Holgate@worldonline.co.za
Secretary:
Carole Hadfield
011-646 1906 | 082 953 2083
Hadders@vodamail.co.za

Soroptimist wins prestigious NSTF award
Mary Scholes, Professor: School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand won the prestigious National Science and Technology Forum Eskom Award for Research Capacity Development over the last 5-10 years (Female) - for her contribution to the training of students and her own innovative work on grasslands and forests. She is a member of SI Johannesburg.
Professor Scholes is one of the co-founders of the Postgraduate Project Office at Wits and in addition an active supporter of scientific institutions and societies. She is an active researcher in the field of Ecophysiology, focusing on nutrient cycling in savannas and plantation forestry. She has supervised 59 MSc and PhD students and 42 Honours students and is currently supervising 12 MSc and PhD students. Together with Professor Janks, another senior academic at Wits, they have created an innovative programme for postgraduate and supervisor enrichment, which has benefited over 400 students and 200 staff members.

Club focus

Soroptimist International Johannesburg club was chartered on 4 April 1964.

Projects

Aurora Project The Aurora project supports South African adolescent girls (and school teachers) from disadvantaged areas, with the objective of enhancing their self-esteem, and enabling them to lead fulfilled lives as persons in their own right. Run jointly by SI Johannesburg and the Johannesburg branch of the South African Association of Women Graduates (SAAWG) this project has been running for 11 years.

Diepsloot Project

The link with the Diepsloot Community goes back to February 1996 when the club met with community representatives in the veld. They had moved six months before, with the blessing of the authorities, from nearby Zevenfontein from where they were being evicted to Diepsloot West No. 2 to establish a new settlement. The people came with faith in the future saying, "If we help ourselves help will come to us". The club's main interests are in the pre-primary school and the adult education centre, both being grassroots creations that started with unpaid volunteer educators.

The Diepsloot Pre-school is self-funded, running itself on the minimal fee it requests from parents, not all families being able to pay. The club has assisted the school principal with her studies by obtaining bursaries for several years,

Members and friends, as well as the Irene Methodist congregation, have faithfully collected education supplements from their newspapers. The relevant supplements are of great use to the educators and are eagerly awaited. The club has also given monetary assistance to the Empilweni food growing project, a food garden in the pre-school grounds. that was established to supply fresh vegetables for the children.

African Self-Help Association (ASHA)

SI Johannesburg continued to support Gillian Wilkinson, a club member, in her work in Soweto. The help was both financial and through the networking strength of the club. Contacts and moral support made a difference to the free flow of help into the community.

Previous projects include an opportunity where staff of schools in the area benefited from a motivational workshop held at Kingsmead College and a party for 70 Grade 0 children Kingsmead College. The Grade 7 Class entertained the Grade 0 children of Khomanani Primary School to a morning of games, party fare and songs. The club contributed to the transport costs, making it possible for the children to attend the event. Other projects include talks on cultivating trees and grass for schools, and assistance during teacher workshops.

Sithabile Child & Youth Care Centre

While the majority of the Centre's children had parents who were unable to care for them for a number of reasons ranging from abuse to extreme poverty when the home began in 1994, 50% of those children are now orphans. The centre has also began supporting some of the parents as they became sick, in order to ensure that they receive ARV(anti-retro viral) treatment, proper nourishment and when they die - they can also be buried with dignity.

Club support is in the form of sponsorship of children to attend school and technical colleges; sponsorship of furniture for the boys' dormitory; arranging council and education support for the children; and treating them to parties during the festive season.