The Union of Soroptimist Clubs in the Netherlands, Surinam and Curaçao is honoured to organize and invite 12 young people to a Youth Croisière from the 6th to the 17th of July 2012.

Please click here to view the invitation.

Registration form

Dear Sorores,

We are pleased to invite you to our Winter Week in January 2012 in Kitzbühel, Austria.

Please also inform all the members of your Club and your Union about this unique occasion to form international Soroptimist contacts in a sociable and comfortable situation.

We are truly looking forward to seeing you.

Programme/ registration form

Please click on the link below to watch SI/E President Kathy Kaaf's Christmas video message:

http://www.soroptimisteurope.org/en/multimedia/videos/sie-president-s-holiday-message.html

Disaster Fund: Long-Term Aid for Victims in Need

The Disaster Fund, a collaboration with SIA, gives grants to projects which provide long-term relief to women and girls after disasters. In the past months famine in Somalia and earthquakes in Turkey have put the lives of many in danger, and have made women and girls in those regions particularly vulnerable. In response to these disasters, the SI/E Board has approved grants to projects benefitting internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Somalia and earthquake victims in Turkey.

Helping Somali IDPs
In order to help IDPs who have fled the effects of drought in Somalia and whose access to food and water is below survival needs, the SI/E Board has decided to a grant funds to: a project initiated by SI Rolle in Switzerland which will aid women in IDP camps directly, and another earmarked for a proposed collaboration with “SOS Children’s Villages International” in the Mogadishu and Baidoa camps.

Two earthquakes hit eastern Turkey
As there are no SI clubs in the affected region outside the town of Varna, the SI/E Board has decided give a grant to a project which collaborates with another organisation that provides aid to women and girls in the affected area in order to realise a longer-term recovery project aimed at job training. They are currently working out the details and will also be given an SI/E grant.

Help us support projects in Somalia (drought and famine) and Turkey (earthquake) by donating to the SI/E Disaster Fund.

In the reference of your bank transfer, please stipulate which project you would like to support, such as ‘Somalia’ or ‘Turkey’, and clearly mention your club as follows: SI (+Club name)

For transfers from the Eurozone, please use the SI/E account at Crédit Agricole des Savoie, Saint Julien En Genevois, France (IBAN: FR76 1810 6000 3496 7040 0803 955, Swift code/BIC: AGRIFRPP881).
Donations from non-Eurozone countries should be sent to UBS, CH – 2001 Neuchâtel, Switzerland, Account No. 290/IN105239.0 (IBAN: CH30 0029 0290 IN10 5239 0, Swift code/BIC: UBSWCHZH80A).

You may also donate via the SI/E website: www.soroptimisteurope.org

For additional information, please contact SI/E HQ at the following email address: siehq@soroptimisteurope.org

Please click on the link below to view President Kathy Kaaf's 10th December letter.

SIE President's Letter December 2011

It gives me great pleasure to inform you of the appointment of Anne Simon as our new Executive Director. She will be based at our Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Anne Simon worked with Pricewaterhouse Coopers for some 20 years in various positions in Geneva, London, New York, and most recently in Dubai where she launched and led the Middle East Strategy and Survey Unit. Her focus was Women's Empowerment and Leadership in the Arab World. She summarised the challenges faced by Arab women striving to reach leadership positions in the publication, “The Arab Women Leadership Outlook”.

Prior to Dubai, she worked in New York and Geneva as the Director of Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global External Affairs. She successfully led the World Economic Forum/PwC Partnership for over 15 years and created innovative programmes for their regional summits and annual meetings in Davos. In addition, she has organised several conferences and congresses around the world, and assisted PwC offices across 160 countries in standardising website design and contents.

After leaving PwC in 2009, she served as a member of the Senior Management team for “Global Forum for Health Research” in Geneva. Anne Simon is currently studying for an MSc in Public Policy and Management at the University of London.

Anne Simon is pleased to join such “a reputable organisation” that serves “the noble cause” of improving the lives of women and girls. Anne Simon lives with her family just outside Geneva. She has French-Swiss dual nationality and speaks fluent English.

Anne Simon will begin work in January 2012. The SI/E Board and the staff at headquarters are certain that Anne Simon will be an excellent asset to our common commitment as “a global voice for women”.

Kathy Kaaf
Soroptimist International of Europe

Soroptimist International, the Global Women’s Organisation celebrated reaching its £1 million fundraising target for Hope and Homes for Children’s lifesaving work with women and children in Sierra Leone...

Click here to read the complete press release (in English only)

	Cheque l to r: Alice Wells Soroptimist International (SI) President, Joe Glackin Hope & Homes, Liz Morgan-Lewis SI Great Britain and Ireland (SIGBI) President, Anne MacDonald SIGBI Project Liaison, Patricia Donohue SI Americas President Kathy Kaaf SI Europe President.
	Girls at project in Bo, Sierra Leone welcoming Soroptimists.
	Mother and baby.

Who could be more appropriate for the Peace Nobel Prize 2011 from our Soroptimist perspective than these three women: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman? Soroptimist has always emphasized that women must take an active part in decision making at all levels of society, but especially in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. Soroptimist International of Europe awards its own Soroptimist Peace Prize which is endowed with 20.000 Euros. This year the Peace Prize went to Sylvia Borren from the Netherlands. Sylvia is using the prize money for a documentation on women’s input in the democratic transition in the Arab countries.

Bravo to the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee who wisely chose these three personalities and their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and their rights to full participation in peace-building work. Nobel Committee chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, said: “We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society”. He said the committee hoped the prize would “help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy that women can represent”.

The three women winners are role-models in the fight for what Soroptimists have been committed to for 90 years : improve the lives of women worldwide.

Kathy Kaaf
SI/E President 2011-2013