Chairman's May Message
Hello and welcome to the UKPAC website. My name is Jan Hemlin, and I am the Chairman of the UK Programme Action Committee. I hope you enjoy looking through this site and find many things of interest.
Unlike last month I am writing this newsletter during the wettest drought in living memory…in some parts of the country anyway!
New Club Year
Thank you to outgoing officers for your sterling work leading Programme Action work in your clubs and welcome and good luck to incoming officers. Remember that the UK Programme Action Committee members are there to support you and this website will hopefully provide inspiration for your work.
UKPAC Study Day 30 June
The Earlybird rate has now been extended to 31st May 2012 so if you haven't yet booked, there are still places and the cost is held at £53, although some of the workshops are now fully booked. If you are travelling any distance, you can book on-campus, single, en-suite accommodation at the same time.
The title of this year's Study Day is Educating R.I.T.A. and it takes as its theme the international Educate to Lead. We have a great line up of speakers. Starting off the day we have two keynote speakers: Juliet Lyon, CBE, Director of the Prison Reform Trust and MEP Linda McAvan, a former British European Woman of the Year.
Then six breakout sessions: MENTORING, led by Rebecca Sykes, who will speak about the help and support she received through The Prince's Trust; ENTERPRISE led by Rita Britton, who founder the designer wear label, Pollyanna; GROOMING, led by Helen Westerman of the NSPCC, challenging everyone to take action to protect children; REBUILDING LIVES, led by the Cellar Project, highlighting the problems women face dealing with mental health; BUILDING A LEARNING COMMUNITY, led by Carry Lynott, who will take a look at how learning is established and an international focus enables children to find their way in the world; and VALUING YOURSELF, led by Sarah Legg, who co-founded Green Room Training - the development of people for improved performance in the workplace and life.
The final keynote speaker is Claire Young, who was The Apprentice finalist in 2008 and a Social Enterprise Champion.
UKPAC Lobbyists
We now have a full compliment of Lobbyists. At our April Reflection and Team Building weekend meeting we appointed our fourth and final member of the team, Farida Patel from SI Neath, who takes on the lobbying role for Wales.
She joins Virginia Stephens (SI Greater London) for England/Westminster,
Iris Miskimmon (SI Bangor) for Northern Ireland and
Audrey Harvey (SI Aberdeen), the lobbyist for Scotland.
We look forward to providing a focus for Lobbying campaigns and to be able to respond to devolved issues.
Forced marriage – A Thank You from SI Bilston and SI Lichfield
As you know, the Home Office launched a Consultation on the Criminalisation of Forced Marriage. SI Bilston and SI Lichfield, who did a tremendous amount, working with Karma Nirvana to ensure this Consultation reached as wide an audience as possible, have written to me. They write:
Jasvinder Sanghera
Members of Bilston & District and Lichfield & District record their very grateful thanks to all Soroptimists who took time to complete the Home Office online consultation and/or return Karma Nirvana postcards. The outcome will not be known for at least six weeks but from postcards returned 93% of Soroptimists are in favour of criminalisation of Forced Marriage.We are pleased to report that Jasvinder Sanghera delivered personally 2,500 postcards to 10 Downing Street on 29th March 2012. Soroptimists can take pride in the fact that 500 of the cards were from UK members.
Jasvinder wanted all Soroptimists to know that, “I and all at Karma Nirvana have been personally moved by Soroptimist support – it is immeasurable to us. Everywhere I go I talk about Soroptimism as a prime example of how you can help a charity like Karma Nirvana effect real change by working together”.
Thank you again from Bilston and Lichfield for your support and as soon as we hear the result of the Home Office Consultation we will notify Soroptimists via the UKPAC website.
Well done SI Bilston and Lichfield!
FGM
The International Symbol of FGM
Headlined “Britain’s 100,000 mutilated women” the Sunday Times article on 22 April, by Mazher Mahmood and Eleanor Mills, highlighted the fact that In Britain FGM is illegal and carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. Despite this, FORWARD, a charity that campaigns against FGM revealed that 100,000 women in Britain have undergone mutilation and a further 24,000 girls are thought to be at risk of suffering the agonising procedure. Despite the scale of the problem, the police have failed to secure a single conviction. Lynne Featherstone, the minister for equalities, said ” Female Genital Mutilation is an abhorrent crime and we are very clear that those found to practice it should feel the full force of the law”
Under UKPAC’s flagship project Violence Against women –Stop it Now, there is much work to be done. Contact FORWARD for information on their campaigns.
Trafficking and 2012 Olympics
We have heard so much about the possibility of an increase in Trafficked men, women and children during the Olympics this summer. The UK Human Trafficking Centre has done an enormous amount of work in raising awareness and training for police and other agencies. I attended my own club’s lobby group meeting with a chaplain from Birmingham International Airport to discuss this issue. It became apparent that a lot more work needs to be done on awareness-raising and training of front line staff, not only at airports but also at motorway service stations. During the Olympics awareness-raising will be needed more than ever in other parts of the country. For more infomation on trafficking, visit the Purple Teardrop website.
Action on Armed Violence
Dr Kay Richmond, the Regional Programme Action Committee Chairman for Wales South and our UKPAC representative for Action on Armed Violence (Formely Landmine Action) has drawn our attention to Amnesty International’s “Support a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty” campaign. ‘Every year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer because of an unregulated arms trade. For decades campaigners have been fighting to ensure the trade is properly controlled. We have a once in a lifetime chance to secure a bulletproof Arms Trade treaty.’
In July, world leaders will meet in New York to draw up an historic document: the first ever International Arms Trade Treaty. You can go to the link to add your name to their campaign to ask David Cameron to support a Bulletproof Treaty.
Best wishes
Jan Hemlin - May 2012
Chairman's Message newsletters
A newsletter format (as a PDF) of the Chairman's Message, is distributed each month to every Soroptimist in the UK.
