News

An update and a big thank you from the Downview Dames – we have been flooded with cards of support and even craft packs that have been sent in from WI members all over Surrey. Your call to arms was wonderful.

We have received so many cards we have been able to distribute one to each of our 20 members and with spare to hang on wing noticeboards. One member said “It’s so lovely to know that people in the community care about us, it means so much and has kept me going.”

We have distributed craft making activities and all of our sewing machines to our members so that they can do some work from their cells. All are currently locked behind their doors for 23 hours a day which is hard, as you can imagine. However they are beavering away on some greening projects (reusable cloth bags, reusable makeup remover wipes etc).

A few of our members are employed in the London College of Fashion workshop here in the prison and they have been really busy making hundreds of scrubs and face masks for Epsom General Hospital, which have been very gratefully received. One describes her work in there as “wonderful to be able to actually do something”. I’m sure you can imagine the feelings of helplessness many of our women are experiencing at the current time so to be able to usefully contribute to the COVID-19 response is very empowering.

So – please pass on our thanks, and I hope the members in the community are safe and well. Better times are ahead.

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Are you ready for the SFWI Bingo challenge?

Plastic Free July is a global movement that encourages people to refuse single-use plastics over the month, and be part of the solution to plastic pollution.

We are embracing this single-use plastic free month and we have devised a challenge for you to complete. We’ve put together a fun bingo for you to take part in if you wish. How many squares can you cross through? Print the SFWI Bingo Card

Best of all, don’t wait for July! You can start now, but we ask that you wait until July before promoting all your activities online, using the hashtags #SFWIsimpleswaps and #SFWsayno.

If you want any further information then please contact the Public Affairs Working Party on SFWIpublicaffairs@gmail.com

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Message from our Federation Treasurer

At the time of writing we are all in lockdown and it is difficult to know what we will be able to do. Treasurers should look out for a mailing that will be sent as soon as we are able to. This will include:

• Booking form for treasurer workshops, which are planned for Saturday, 22 August and Tuesday, 25 August  (Guildford); Wednesday, 26 August and Thursday, 3 September (Caterham). These will be subject to whatever restrictions are in place at the time. You can also book from the posts on the What’s On page.
• Request form to apply for an Independent Financial Examiner for your WI
• Form to enable the payment of additional subscriptions received since payment made in March
• A copy of the insurance certificate for the year to 15 April, 2021
• Helpful hints for treasurers for their year end accounts

All these documents will be available on the WI Treasurers tab of the Document Library page, so do check for non-data protected material and up-to-date information.

Sheena Landgraf, Federation Treasurer

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Lockdown lessons for climate change

There is no doubt that COVID-19 will change the way we live forever!

Routine is now the order of the day, breakfast in the sun, WI work, gardening, cooking and patchwork, and walks across the adjacent army ranges replacing visits to Wisley, the only time I step beyond our gate. Simple aspects of everyday living provide their challenges. Can I eke the milk out until the next supermarket delivery? How can I use 40 chicken drumsticks, delivered as an alternative to a chicken? Why, when I order a pair of knickers online, do I have to give them my bra size?

Each day I hear about the many wonderful things SFWI members are doing in lockdown. I have been extraordinarily moved by how members have met the current challenge and have developed so many ways to deliver a monthly meeting and to keep in regular contact — meetings on line, craft activities delivered to members, phone calls and cards. Your versatility, as detailed in this edition of SWIN, is an inspiration to us all. If your committee has not yet taken the initiative to find alternative ways to engage with its members, then this edition has the answers, read on! If you have an idea, then implement it. Your fellow members will be delighted.

Very many WIs have also answered the call from local NHS and care homes to make PPE. Your efforts have been impressive. I salute you all. The Federation is most proud of your achievement.

As the unbelievable and tragic death toll gradually reduces and the government guidance relaxes a little, we must look to the future. For the moment however we must live under a set of seemingly incoherent, unfair and sometimes upsetting rules, where a cleaning lady can visit my house, but a member of my family cannot. I can greet my friend’s dog in the park but not my own grandchild … We all have our frustrations.

In a recent YouGov poll, a significant majority of participants did not wish to return to life as it was before. Do you? What is your vision for the future? We are certainly far more vulnerable than we thought we were. We can no longer live in a false bubble of comfort and complacency.  COVID-19 is a significant reminder that we are an integral part of the world that we are totally dependent on, and that we have the capacity to destroy it. We have been reminded that we are utterly reliant on nature. What does this mean? Will we emerge from this a more thoughtful and engaging species?

One thing is certain: climate change is far more of a threat to the world than the pandemic and we should take it much more seriously. Post COVID-19, radical changes in government agendas will be needed, a new approach to public services and the tax system, and a move towards equality in society. Can we begin to imagine that future? Shall we begin to live this new normal now? A normal that is good for the planet?

The WI is playing a significant role in campaigning on climate change. At the moment it seems as if there is little we can do, as daily living provides us with unique and difficult challenges, but we are already making a difference by our reduction in car usage, cancelling overseas holidays, growing fruit and vegetables and ‘Making Do and Mend’. Resourcefulness is key.

Back to today. The sun has risen on a beautiful spring morning, the birds sing, my enchanting wood mouse vacuums up under the bird feeder. There is much to enjoy. And remember, as the VE Day Commemoration drifts into our memory, we are not at war. This is a time of peace not conflict, so we will get through this in a calm and controlled way.

And finally, in the words of Rumi, the medieval, Persian Sufi poet: ‘This too will pass’.

Carol Gartrell, Federation Chairman

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Update on 2019/2020 resolutions process

As the 2020 NFWI Annual Meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the two resolutions due to be discussed were not able to be debated or voted on by delegates.

The NFWI Board of Trustees has decided that in these exceptional circumstances, the results of the shortlist selection process will be used as a proxy for the Annual Meeting vote.

In the shortlisting selection stage, two resolutions (stem cells and modern slavery) attracted a clear majority of selections from members (over 70%).

The NFWI Board felt that this was the most democratic means available to determine the outcome of this year’s resolution process, taking into account time and resource constraints and the challenges of the current lockdown period. The Board also wanted to recognise the huge amount of time and effort that members, WIs and federations put into the resolutions process this year.

This means that the two resolutions have now been adopted by the WI, and members are free to campaign on these issues. The resolutions are as follows:

A call to increase potential stem cell donor registration

There is an urgent need to increase the number of people registered on the aligned UK stem cell registry in order to provide potentially life-saving treatment to people of all ages with certain blood cancers. We call on all WI members to promote registration to the database to avoid people dying whilst waiting for a match.

End Modern Slavery

There are tens of thousands of victims of modern slavery hiding in plain sight in the UK. Modern slavery has severe consequences for the health and mental wellbeing of survivors. The NFWI calls on the Government to protect victims of modern slavery in the first instance and deliver longer term support to help them rebuild their lives. We call on our members to raise awareness of the prevalence of modern slavery throughout society and to campaign to defeat it.

Further information, next steps and a breakdown of the shortlist selection results can be found on NFWI’s website

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These free online wellbeing courses are not organised by The Federation, but are by a WI member.

They may be of interest to you.

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The Lady Denman Cup Competition is a long running, prestigious competition, attracting a high level of interest from members year after year.  The current lockdown situation maybe challenging for many, but its the perfect opportunity to encourage members to develop or learn new skills and take part in activities which wouldn’t have perhaps normally captured their interest, or been able to give the time to.

For this reason, a creative writing competition could be the perfect way for people to ‘escape’ and let their imaginations run wild and I am pleased to confirm that the Lady Denman Cup competition will continue this year.  However, a decision has been made to extend the competition timescale; following discussions with a number of federations, we are aware that some federations have had to furlough staff, which would mean administering the competition would either be very difficult or impossible.  By extending the timeframe, the competition not only becomes open and fair to all who wish to take part, but it also helps reduce the pressure off everyone involved.

The theme for this year’s Lady Denman Cup is “What I heard on the bus”

Using no more than 500 words, WI members are invited to submit a piece of writing, either comical, serious, fact or fiction, based on a conversation they have overheard, or imagined they had heard, on the bus.

To allow a fair and standardised competition timescale across all WIs and federations, the NFWI has set a closing date of Friday, 18 September 2020 for members to submit their entry to their Federation office.

After this date, federations have until Friday, 16 October 2020 to select up to three entries to go forward for national judging.  Results will be announced by mid-December 2020.

A revised schedule, individual entry form and federation entry form will be available to download from MyWI shortly.

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