SI Joondalup – East Timor Chicken Project

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Local Soroptimist Club’s farming project in East Timor was one of 2 power point presentations showcased at the Soroptimist International exhibition stall at the 64th Department of Public Information NGO Conference in Bonn. Anusha Santhirasthipam, Soroptimist International Assistant Programme Director was interviewed by journalist Andre Leslie from DW TV/radio/cable news service worldwide regarding Soroptimist projects worldwide aimed at empowering women. He later used the East Timor chicken breeding project by SI Joondalup in the news story as an example of one of the most successful SI projects which contributed to women empowerment.

SI Joondalup set up the project, a chicken breeding programme with the key goals of improving the lives of farmers through education and practical funding. A number of women were selected and given help to purchase and set up the chicken koops and buy the first lot of hens and roosters. Since then, the women have been able to sell the eggs for both eating and for incubating so the circle caries on. They use the chicken manure for fertilizing their gardens which aids the growing of vegetables. Knowing that that “59 % of the world’s farmers are women, 70% of the world’ hungry are also women makes us realise that there is something wrong with the world’s mechanisms”, according to Anusha.

Bee Bee Sullivan
Publicity Officer

2011 WA Nursing and Midwifery Awards Excellence Awards

Bee Bee Sullivan was among the seven finalists for the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the function held at the Burswood Convention Centre. Bee Bee said that it was a great honour to have been nominated to represent Osborne Park Hospital along with Jenny Ellery. Both of us have worked well over 35 years at the hospital, me as a Nurse Manager Clinical/Nursing Information Systems and Jenny as the Clinical Nurse Manager on night duty. We were both delighted to hear who the recipient of the award was, a very worthy Professor Robin Watts from Curtin University who has been “a major driving force in the strategic direction of nursing, midwifery and healthcare in WA.