SI Joondalup – Supporting the education of women and girls
August 30, 2010
Ailsa Rothenbury
By Ailsa Rothenbury
Soroptimist International aims to support the education of women and girls; sometimes the recipients of that support are actually our own members.
I am fortunate to be a member of a very supportive club, Soroptimist International of Joondalup, who acknowledge the private activities I pursue, which relate to my paid work with mothers and babies. At work I am ‘at the coal face’, in a clinic seeing mothers and babies, helping them sort through their day to day challenges and finding pragmatic solutions.
In 2007 after attending the Soroptimist International Conference in Glasgow, I visited the NHS Quality Improvement Board in Edinburgh, to understand more about how they progressed clinical strategies and ‘new knowledge’. Back in my Perth workplace, that information didn’t help, as we don’t have the same setup. I continued to work with the mothers (and fathers) to progress the aims of women who wanted to breastfeed normally, without pain. The strategies work, I wrote a book, and our Soroptimist club’s Publicity Officer managed to get it in the local paper.
Feeding is not part of the standard child developmental screening tools used world wide. Just like a jig saw, I kept finding pieces of the puzzle and fitting them together, until I got the ‘best fit’. Now I am quite confident with this approach to a ‘feeding problem’, where the mum is usually complaining of sore nipples, or the infant is not gaining weight, or seems very uncomfortable during feeds. For the last fifty years the infant has been ‘ignored’, and mothers ‘blamed’ for a range of factors e.g. weak milk, not enough milk, too muck milk, too fat, too thin, too anxious. We must check the efficiency of the infant suck-swallow-breathe cycle.
I developed an assessment tool to evaluate this cycle in infants. My colleagues in community child health refer mums and bubs to my clinic and I teach the parents how to assess the suck and how to recognise when it is wrong and when it is right and oral motor efficiency is achieved. This was the reason for a colleague nominating me for a Nursing Excellence Award recently. I am on the short list. The announcement of winners will be in October, but I will probably be in East Timor on a government invited delegation with Soroptimist International of Joondalup.
Our lives are multifaceted, knowledge doesn’t recognise borders, supporting for others takes many shapes. Knowledge is a valuable resource and we need to put it to good use. I know I have supported and helped many parents here in Perth, and hope that I can make a start in supporting mums (and midwives) in East Timor. This would contribute to the Millenium Development Goals of the UN – particularly goals 4 and 5 concerning child survival and maternal health.
SI Maylands Peninsula – ‘Matching Jack’ Fundraising Movie
August 29, 2010
Click here to download the flyer
SI On The Terrace Quiz Night
August 28, 2010
Soroptimist International on the Terrace is holding a Quiz Night on
Saturday 28th August at the Palms Community Centre Subiaco. Tickets $10
may be purchased from Sue on 93848295 or reagle@iinet.net.au
For a copy of the flyer Click Here
SI Canning District – Fashion Parade
August 18, 2010
S.I Canning District Fashion Parade
Click Here For more information.
SI Canning District Fashion Parade
Click here to view the Fashion Parade flyer for SI Canning Districts.
Bill runs for Soroptimist International
August 8, 2010
Inglewood resident Bill Prendergast has been running to get fit for the past few years but this year he has doubled his efforts with the intention of entering the Perth Half Marathon on 8 August. Bill’s wife Jane is the inaugural President of Soroptimists International of Maylands Peninsula. He has extra incentive to do well because his aim is to raise funds for the club. Bill’s dedication is seeing him well on the way to achieving his two goals: to finish the Half Marathon in under two hours and to raise $5000 for Soroptimist International.
Bill says ‘I started my get fit campaign a couple of years ago and this will be my first attempt at this distance and maybe in another couple of years I will be able to do the full monty. D-Day is on August 8 so training is well under way. For the past 6-8 weeks I have been running 15k on Saturdays and usually 3 other shorter training sessions during the week. My best time so far is 1hr 25min for 15k, so things look OK for finishing the half in 2 hours’.
The intention of raising money for a good cause has spurred Bill on with his dedicated training program. He has set up a secure on-line donation page and money goes straight to the club through donations to http://www.onlinegiving.com.au/pages/weallwin.aspx
‘Your donation will make a real difference to the Soroptimist club’s programs. It only takes a few minutes to donate via this fund raising page and is completely secure. Please feel free to also leave me a message on my message board!’
Some of the funds raised will go towards a new club project focusing on HIV/AIDs in Papua New Guinea.
Call to Action from the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women Article
August 4, 2010
To view this article Click Here.
SI Helena – August Guest Speaker
August 3, 2010
For more information Click Here
SI Canning District Film Afternoon – “Knight and Day”
August 1, 2010
Film afternoon on Sunday 1 August for the movie “Knight and Day” to raise funds for Project Sierra.
