SI Cambridge Projects
Each Soroptimist International club identifies the needs of its community, then establishes specific projects to address these needs. All our projects relate to one or more of the six Programme Focus Areas: Economic and Social Development, Education, Environment, Health, Human Rights and the Status of Women, and International Goodwill and Understanding.
More information is available in the Our Work pages, where you can read more about the current Programme Focus aims and the Quadrennial Project, supported by all clubs in the Federation.
The projects listed below include some of the local and international issues we research and support in SI Cambridge:
CAM-MIND
CAM-MIND is a local mental health charity affiliated with the national charity MIND.
It is one of the oldest mental health societies, founded in 1908 by Ida Darwin and F A Keynes as the Society for the Feebleminded to raise funds for education. Funds for an education and training centre in Paradise Street were provided by the Council in 1978, the growth of which led eventually to the founding of the Lady Adrian School and the Ida Darwin Hospital.
The current association was formed in 1986 as the Cambridge Mental Welfare Association. Relying mainly on volunteers, it is based at the Bower House in Chesterton Road, has residential accommodation, office and club room and offers friendship, support and stability for adults with long term mental health problems in an impartial non-judgmental environment. Supported housing is provided together with a one to one befriending service. Group homes are run in partnership with Cambridge Housing, and CAM-MIND employs two workers who visit the houses offering support in addition to that which the residents provide for each other.
A variety of day services are available including the Monday Drop-in, cooking, art and craft, and pottery groups, and on Sundays a lunch group. There is also a group at the Arbury Community Centre, a recently formed one in Sawston, and two carers’ groups.
The charity relies heavily on volunteers of which there are 70 at present who, together with service users, organise social activities, parties, outings etc. The aim is to empower and encourage people to live as independently as possible. One to one befriending is intended for those not ready to access the day centre, they meet on a regular basis, perhaps for a few hours a week, and do ordinary things. More volunteers are needed for this role.
CAM-MIND also acts as an information provider, answering enquiries and requests for help, and acting as a contact for people with mental health problems. Their newsletter is sent to 1200 people, targeting agencies other than their own contacts in order to publicise the work and possibly gain more volunteers or subscribers. All the work, apart from the supported housing, is done without any sustained funding so subscribing members are encouraged by having names printed in the newsletter.
Plans for extending the service include music, writing and exercise groups, provision for young people, and mental health awareness training in schools. They would also like to give service to local businesses in the form of stress relief training.
Updates
At the Club's Christmas Party £150 was raised through a raffle, quiz and `guess the weight of the cake'which covered the costs of the day after Boxing Day party, for all Cam-mind clients who were alone at Christmas.
The assistant administrator says that the day starts calmly, she opens the office and puts the kettle on and from then on she transforms into Basil Fawlty and the office into the hotel. From a calm office a chat with a support worker or one or two residents and then it begins, the phones ring whether for fundraising, a prospective volunteer, or an enquiry, and another list is written. She says that by the end of a normal day she is tearing her hair out and banging her head just like Basil Fawlty only unlike him she occasionally feels that she is winning.
They quote 'without the special band of volunteers, devoting many hours between them to facilitate all these services the excellent range of clubs and groups available to enhance the lives of so many local people could not function.’
It can be best summed up in the words of a client:-
“Cam-mind and what it does for me. Cam-mind when things look bleak in the week, or help is not so near, for peace of mind you can go and see the people at Cam-mind. A helping hand you there will find to be there when you are feeling weak things that they do keep you on your feet as you go through the week. When everything looks like weeds come and see the flowers and make your week.”
PROJECT INDEPENDENCE
A dinner was held at St Mark’s College, Audley End on Saturday 26th November 2005 which raised funds for Project Independence.
After an enjoyable dinner Federation Past President Ann Garvie gave a very interesting and thought provoking talk about recent Quadrennial projects with a quiz at the end to ensure that we had all been listening.
INSTITUTE FOR RURAL HEALTH STUDIES
The Institute for Rural Health Studies (IRHS) in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh has been supported by Cambridge Soroptimists for many years, both by individual members and by the club as a whole.
IRHS promotes health in drought-stricken rural areas of India through a number of initiatives.
· Village Clinics providing reliable health care in rural areas.
· Working with tribal groups to train local healthcare workers from some of the most remote communities in India.
· Running long-term charity programmes including one for cleft lip and palate repair, providing free surgery for poorer children in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
· Each of the Institute's health care activities has a tremendous impact on the people they touch. Research is tied in with all of these practical health care projects as a means of evaluating their effectiveness and allowing what has been learnt to be applied elsewhere.
IRHS runs clinics in Dokur and Kotakadra villages in a rural semi-arid area 125km from Hyderabad. A major project which the Cambridge Club became involved in was the building of an additional storey onto the clinic at Dokur to enable the clinic to cope with the ever increasing number of patients. Cambridge Soroptimists organised a number of events which funded the completion of the building and enabled the training of additional staff. Each week from 200 to 250 patients travel from all over the district to attend. Experienced paramedics, family health care workers and volunteer health professionals staff the clinics. As the only reliable health care provider within a great distance, they treat a large variety of illnesses. Complex cases and those in need of surgery are referred on to district or city hospitals for affordable specialist care. Women’s and children’s health has a high priority at the clinics as does the improvement of health levels through health education
The clinics are also the base for Institute’s applied health research.
The Clinic has a pharmacy that dispenses over 70 low cost drugs and a laboratory that provides a wide range of simple diagnostic tests.
For more information on the work of the IRHS please go to www.irhs.org.
THE MARIE SCHUTT TRUST
The Marie Schutt Trust was established following a bequest to the Cambridge Club from a former member, who expressed a wish that it be used to help Soroptimists or other women with a housing need.
The Trust owns a small house in Cambridge which is let to tenants at a charitable rent. In recent years this has enabled a number of women to study at Lucy Cavendish College.
In addition the Trust periodically makes payments for housing claims for such items as repair or renewal of heating systems, showers etc., thus assisting women in remaining in their own homes.
ARTHUR RANK HOUSE HOSPICE
For more than twenty years, on Saturday and Sunday evenings, Cambridge Soroptimists have cared for the reception and tea-bar at the Hospice. This is a service offered to both patients and their visitors.
Updates
There were ten rounds including general knowledge, sport, arts, numbers and history. We were fortunate in having one younger member to help the older members with more modern films and music. At half time we were in the middle of the pack, but after gaining full points, whilst playing our Joker, we finished second, two points behind the winners. Needless to say our Joker round was on food and drink!
During the interval each table shared a large ploughman’s whilst completing a picture round of twenty pictures of people to be recognised. The questions, on the whole were not obscure, but with enough more difficult ones to sort the sheep from the goats.
It was an enjoyable, well organised evening sponsored by ASDA. It raised over £1000 to help refurbish the day room at Arthur Rank House.