To celebrate International Women’s Day, CFUW SSI partnered with the Salt Spring Public Library to show the film “Story of the Coast Salish Knitters”. It was very well received especially afterwards with the special guests.
Our Membership total recovered post Covid 19 with the resumption of in-person meetings in the Fall of 2021. In 2025 we now have 16 members. In lieu of formal general meetings, we have lunch meetings with special guests. This year, our theme for these meetings is education.
We were very pleased to receive an award from CFUW National for our Hope project in 2024. This project was started in 2005 to support secondary school education for girls in need but with potential in selected Commonwealth Countries. This project is a co-action with the Commonwealth Girls Education Fund. Through the Hope Project CFUW SSI has funded 213 girls to completion of sponsorship.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, our club co-sponsored with the Salt Spring Island Library, a CFB film “20th Century Gals” . It was a fabulous upbeat film produced by Cathy Jones.
Our CFUW SSI Club held their annual Christmas Lunch on Dec. 7 at the Harbour House Hotel. It was a delicious lunch and a successful fundraising event for the Hope Project and our “Second Chance” bursaries. We appreciated the fine service provided by the Harbour House management and staff.
In 2019, CFUW SSI decided to award an additional Second Chance Bursary. We received many good applications and were able to award 2 bursaries to Salt Spring Island women continuing their post-secondary education. Funds to support these bursaries were raised partially through our annual flower basket sales generously supported by Fraser’s Thimble Farms. We are also grateful to the Thriftys Foods Smile Card Program and the Country Grocer Cash Register Tape Program.
In 2018-19, the CFUW SSI Hope Project sponsored 21 girls, 5 continuing and 16 new students. Of the 21 girls, 3 girls are from Rwanda, 4 girls from Jamaica, 1 girl from Sri Lanka, 5 girls from Uganda and 8 girls from India.
We had a very warm and festive celebration with CFUW members and friends at our Christmas Luncheon on Dec. 08, 2018 at our beautifully decorated Lions Hall. As always, our hostess table was a successful fundraiser for our Hope Project.
In December 2017, 11 Girls sponsored by Hope completed their Education.
These included 2 girls from Bangladesh, 7 girls from PNG who were finally able to complete their last year of secondary School (all over 22 years of age), and two girls from Belize.
This brings the total number of girls who have completed their secondary education with the sponsorship of the Hope Project to 131 girls.
Going forward in 2018 we will continue to sponsor 23 girls, who for the most part are supported by individual Club members and by Friends of Hope. These girls include 4 from Guyana, 10 from India, 1 from Sierra Leone, 3 from Malawi, 3 from Jamaica, and 2 from Rwanda.
The Hope Project team exceeded their goal of raising enough to continue funding another year of education for these girls. with the loyalty and generous donations of CFUW Hope supporters.
The donations continue to come in through 2018 and there will be a Hope meeting later in the year to discuss the possible selection of some new girls with the funds in excess of the ongoing commitment for our 23 girls.
With world events continuing to reflect a great need to help educate young women in every country, the Hope project continues to make a contribution through the help of supporters who can and do make a difference.