Who we are?
Soroptimist International (SI) is a worldwide organisation of women standing for rights of women and human rights for all. This is politically and in terms of outlook neutral, non-governmental organisation working together with United Nations agencies and the Council of Europe. Soroptimist International is represented there. The SI members are well educated professional women representing high ethical standards. .
The name Soroptimist is derived from the Latin words „soror” and „optimum” interpreted as „the best for women”. The first Soroptimist club was found in California, in 1921. Dr. Suzanne Noël chartered the first SI club in Paris, in 1924. A few years later in 1930 the European Federation was established. Soroptimism was intrduced in Poland in 1990. On the initiative of Dr. Jadwiga Grzbiela in June 1991 the SI Bielsko-Biala Club was chartered as a second one in Poland. The Club is incessantly working untill now.
We tried to improve the lives of women and young talented girls to help them in realizing their ambitious plans. The charitable activity and the membership fees enable us to complete the above mentioned.
We are 29 members now. The main goal of the SI Bielsko-Biala Club is to promote young and talented women and to help them in realizing their plans. Every year the charity balls as well as memberships fee are the main sources of raising money for the needs of the club.
During 25 years of our activity we realized a lot for the local communities (more you can read in the „Calendar”). We consider to be our great succsess granting the scholarships for schoolgirls from Secondary Music School in B-B and co-funding musical instruments for them. We take part in their concerts and with great satisfaction we keep up with their artistic development.
Specially important was „We know our Mums” project carried on with the Centre for Education and Rehabilitation of Blind and Partly Sighted Children in Rudołtowice (next to Pszczyna in Silesia region) we launched in 2012. It was a set of different activities for the mothers of children attending the Centre. We focused on the mothers. We wanted to give them awareness of their own needs and often discovered their individual interests, as well as integrated women having the same problems.
We are different, yes, as all the people differ. There are founder members of the Club among us who since 25 years are still active, energetic, having a lot of initiative and working for the others. We really appreciate their experience and help.
We represent different professions and different views on life. But we totally agree in one point: we want to help underprivileged women and girls. Sometimes it is just a good word, sometimes it is also financial support.
We would like to keep up with the changing world, that is why helping the others we do not forget about self-education.
