Soroptimist International comes to Wyndham

A female service club that offers support to women and children in need is opening up a chapter in Wyndham. And it needs your help.

Soroptimist International (SI), which boasts more than 80,000 members from 3000 clubs worldwide, works at a local, national and international level to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women and girls.

The organisation works closely with other non-government organisations and has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

SI’s Karen Thornton says the Wyndham chapter, meeting monthly, will work on local projects such as scholarship programs or running friendship circles for migrants.

Ms Thornton, SI’s Victorian region extension and membership development co-ordinator, said she was pleased with the interest at a recent information evening, but to be established the club needed between 15 and 20 women to join.

“There’s really no female service clubs in Wyndham and when we did the research and spoke with Wyndham council and some of the local politicians, they all agreed there was a need for a female-specific service club,” Ms Thornton said.

“The ladies we’ve had at our meetings are very keen.

“We’re doing research to see what sort of things there are in the Wyndham area that we could support in the way of projects, because we like to support local women and girls. The projects can really make a difference to people in need.”

Information session

The club is hosting another information session on November 24 from 10am-noon at the Plaza Library, corner Heaths and Derrimut roads, Hoppers Crossing.

A guest will speak about her experience as a foundation member when the Gippsland club was chartered in 2013 and about a project she is developing to raise awareness of family violence.

For more information, call 5256 3570 or email sivicmembership@yahoo.com.au