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I would like to start by congratulating Nancy Durrell McKenna and SafeHands for Mothers for their fantastic effort in being the runner-up in the BOND International Development Awards for the Now That You Know, Say No to FGM video campaign. Well done Nancy! Our Club is proud to have you as a member and to be supporting the charity you founded, promoting health and safety for mothers.
This is set to be a very productive year for the Zonta Club of London II. I am very excited about some of the things we will be doing during my term. These include developing a programme that is more targeted towards appealing to new members and keeping existing members engaged. The programme has been developed in conjunction with my fellow board members, Ann Edqvist, Sue Mansfield, Carol Ann Howells, Angela Yin, Ruth Dar and Britt Gustawsson.
I want to thank Laura Bassett from Eaves for Women who presented at the June club dinner meeting. Our Club has supported Eaves for nearly 10 years and a lot has changed in that time, including new members of our Club wanting to be acquainted with the services Eaves offers and how our Club can help.
We look forward to building our relationship with Eaves and supporting their work including helping women in and to exit the sex industry, victims of trafficking and domestic violence.
I also want to welcome Kofo Anifowoshe as the newest member of our Club. Congratulations and I look forward to inducting you at our next meeting, when you will take the Zonta Pledge, a proud moment indeed.
Thank you to all the guests who come to our meetings. You are most welcome to any dinner meeting we have scheduled, but please RSVP beforehand with your menu choice, so that dinner is ready for you!
Rehana Raja
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I'm sure that you're as shocked as we are with the tragedy in Tunisia that killed 39 people last Friday, including 30 Britons. There are currently two Zonta clubs in Tunisia - our hearts are with our fellow Zontians and their families.
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Next meeting - Wednesday, 8 July 2015
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An invitation has been sent about the next dinner meeting in July. Our Young Women In Public Affairs Award winners have been invited.
Our next meeting is 8 July. Please RSVP by Friday 3 July if you are attending with your menu choice to contact@zontalondon.org.
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Please find attached our Club Programme for 2015. We look forward to seeing you then!
Get the programme here.
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We aim to regularly publish short press releases on our website, to ensure it’s kept up-to-date. We published three in June, including one that was picked up by Zonta International, because of Volunteers Week. We also commented on the report on rape in London, commissioned by Scotland Yard.
Read our press releases here.
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Now that you know, say no to FGM - it's a winner!
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Nancy Durrell McKenna, London Zontian and founding director of SafeHands for Mothers celebrates 12 years of the charity she founded.
In addition to that, on 1 June her video campaign featuring the young men was runner-up in the BOND International Development Awards, in the Inspiring Campaign category. The winner was ActionAid, a large international NGO, so for a small charity, this was a huge achievement.
Congratulations Nancy, and all at SafeHands for Mothers. Keep up the excellent work!
http://www.safehands.org/media/saynotofgm/
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The award-winning video in the Inspiring Campaign category - featuring young men. There are two others in the series, featuring young women and another featuring health professionals.
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District 29 Conference Groningen, The Netherlands - 2-4 October
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Please see the website here http://www.zontaconferencegroningen2015.org for the agenda and recommended hotels.
The early bird registration closes on 15 July, so register ASAP! Hope to see you there.
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Digital fundraising for Zonta
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In addition to running events to fundraise for our Club, we want to try other methods as well. As much as we want people to attend our fantastic events, we understand not everyone can get to them all the time.
So why not text to donate to us?
We have also signed up to Give As You Live, which will allow shoppers to choose us as their charity of choice when they shop online. Once we know which retailers are putting us forward, we will let you know, so you can shop and donate to us!
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Zonta London Summer Garden Party - Sunday 23 August
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You would have received a separate invitation from us inviting you to the annual summer party at Sue Mansfield’s place. £15 gets you her delicious hospitality.
In case you missed it, here it is!
To RSVP, please email contact@zontalondon.org.
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Featured Charity: Eaves for Women toiletry collection
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After Laura’s inspiring talk to our Club about Eaves for Women and their work with homeless women and women with no recourse to public funds, we have concluded our Club would like to start collecting toiletries for them.
We envisage packs that would include shampoo, conditioner, soap or bodywash, toothpaste, toothbrush and a small supply of sanitary pads.
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Zonta London II Director Ruth Dar and Eaves Fundraising Manager Laura Bassett
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Zonta Guildford 800th Anniversary Magna Carta walk
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The Zonta Club of Guildford hosted the 800 year anniversary Magna Carta walk on Saturday, 27 June. It was a glorious day and three Zontians from our Club attended, Angela Yin, Sue Mansfield and Brenda Rosen. We were given a tour of the Runnymede meadow, where Magna Carter was signed initially by King John I. We were shown two oak trees, one to commemorate the first English settlement in the USA, Virginia, which acknowledges that the ideals of liberty and justice embodied in the American Constitution, trace their lineage to the Magna Carter. The second Oak Tree was planted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 to mark National Tree Week.
We were also shown John F. Kennedy’s memorial, which is planted on the symbolic acre of land gifted to the USA, under the sovereignty of the UK, which commemorates the late President’s ideals of liberty and justice.
The American Bar Association pays homage to Magna Carta with a large memorial at Runnymede meadow. The picture is of our group standing around it!
Lastly, the latest sculpture to commemorate the Magna Carta was unveiled last week and contains twelve brass chairs in the centre of the meadow with etchings of significant moments in legal history, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s fight for a free Myanmar (Burma), Oscar Wilde and Nelson Mandela and blind trade unionists who fought for disability rights in this country.
An inspirational day – many thanks to Hilde, Gunhild and all at Zonta Guildford for organising!
More photos can be seen on our Facebook page.
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Graphic designers - shoutout!
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Do we have any graphic designers in our midst? PR and Comms committee chair, Angela Yin is updating Zonta Club of London II’s current marketing material. We want to re-design our brochure and pull-up banner with new branding guidelines and colour template provided by Zonta International.
Please email contact@zontalondon.org if you can help!
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National Alliance of Women's Organisations AGM - 25 June
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Ruth Dar was our representative at this year’s NAWO AGM. It was an inspirational day! Julie Bindel moderated question time. Ruth submitted a question on behalf of the Club to Charles Ramsden (head of EU and international policy at the Government Equalities Office), which was chosen and applauded. She asked what specifically this new government is doing to improve the UK women's rights situation described earlier by Joanna Maycock (Sec. Gen. of the Women's European Lobby) as "stagnated" and "going backwards". Joanna pointed out how more needs to be done to address issues of pay equality, rape and domestic violence, among others.
Secretaries Nicky Morgan and Caroline Dinenage were unable to attend, but it was an excellent opportunity to be able to question politicians and government officers, most of whom were impressive. Ruth also asked Helene Reardon-Bond (Deputy Director, Head of Gender Equality, Government Equalities Office) why the UK, unlike France, has still been unable to get an FGM conviction after 30 years.
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We were very pleased to see Michelle Obama in London recently where she visited the Mulberry School for Girls in the Tower Hamlets. She was here to promote UK and US global efforts to promote girls’ education. She was joined by International Development Secretary Justine Greening to announce a joint project between the two countries to fund girls’ education in the Congo.
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SOS - Women's Aid email campaign
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Recently, The Sun newspaper joined forces with Women’s Aid to get as many signatures as possible for the Give Me Shelter petition, to boost funding for women’s refuges. You may have seen it on our Twitter and Facebook pages. Now, they want us to send an email to Prime Minister David Cameron to fund these vital services. Suggested wording is as follows:
Please send the below message to David Cameron today using this contact form: https://email.number10.gov.uk/ . Feel free to amend with your personal views and experiences.
Subject Line: You have the power to save lives by saving women’s refuges, please hear my call for support.
Dear Prime Minister,
I am a supporter of the Women’s Aid SOS: Save Refuges, Save Lives campaign and am pleased to see The Sun have taken this campaign forward with Women’s Aid through the Give Me Shelter Campaign.
As this is an issue of national importance I was very pleased to read that you recently promised to examine ‘very carefully’ the issue of refuge funding. I urge you to act quickly and provide a long term funding solution for refuges and consider providing additional short term funding to ensure no further refuge closures. This action will ensure your Government is doing all it can to protect women and children fleeing domestic violence when they have nowhere else to turn.
Women’s refuges save lives every day and are irreplaceable. If we do not act now to protect the future of our world-leading network of services we risk losing them forever. Women and children fleeing domestic violence will pay the ultimate price for the Government’s failure to act to protect these services.
I am grateful for all that your Government has done to protect survivors of domestic violence, please let these services continue to provide a lifeline. Please act now.
Yours sincerely,
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16 Days of Activism (25 November - 10 December)
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Zonta International has developed materials for Clubs to promote Zonta Says NO in 2015 during the 16 days of activism later in the year. We will talk at our next Club meeting what we would like to do here in London to promote Zonta Says NO during that period.
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Lastly, Pride in London will have concluded by the time this bulletin is published. Congratulations to London’s LGBT community on yet another fabulous Pride, with the parade held on Saturday, 27 June.
Women paved the way for the gay rights movement both in this country and around the world, in particular the mothers of gay children. We congratulate you on your progress.
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We would like to continue to develop this product with our members and supporters in mind. If you have anything you would like to share with the Club, please do not hesitate to email contact@zontalondon.org.
Please also follow us on social media!
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