Every Monday lunchtimes, hidden peacefully away in Newstead's conference room is a Charity society that until December 2018, hardly any of the pupils had heard of. In the first week of December the society, led by Devangi Vyas (form rep of 10S), presented on numerous days to different year groups in hope of alerting them about this society. The 15 members worked together to create a 15 minute presentation which recieved outstanding applause on many occasions. The Soroptimst Charity was represented by 4 main speakers starting with Devangi.
Devangi spoke about Feminism explaining the truth behind it and here is one of the quotes she said. 'So, for anyone who needs a refresher, this is what Feminism means at its core - Feminist- ‘a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes’. Hating men and being a feminist are not actually connected at all, not even a little bit.' Soroptimst is an all women charity and as she rightly said 'feminist or not, help us and help them to change society’s integrated views on everyone.'
The other three girls: Sucharita Sarkar, Amy Booth and Sethujah Gangatharan tackled issues about ending sexual violence and a project set up called 'The School Of Justice'. They spoke about the charity's aims and the issues facing women and girls in out society.
Here is a little about Soroptimst:
The name Soroptimist was coined from the Latin ‘Soror’ meaning sister, and ‘Optima’ meaning best. Soroptimist International is the world’s leading women’s international organisation working together to transform the lives of women and girls. This organisation has already accomplished many things but are still working to achieve much more, all around the world. Each area of the world has an individual club society which works for their own country and then when federation meetings take place, heads of the clubs visit each other and give feedback.
To end, Devangi spoke 'You know the facts, you know the story. If you want to help, you know what to do'.
If you are interested, here is a link to their international website-
https://www.soroptimistinternational.org
