17th May
The National Federation of Women’s Institutes’ (NFWI) AGM will be held on Wednesday 30 May 2012 at the Royal Albert Hall, London from 10.30am to 4.30pm. More than 5,000 WI members are expected to attend to decide the organisation’s campaigning focus for the forthcoming year, and vote on the following resolution:
“There are chronic shortages of midwives. The NFWI calls on the Government to increase investment in the training, employment and retention of midwives in England and Wales to ensure services are adequately resourced and are able to deliver a high standard of care.”
In fact it is a global problem but relevant to us here at home.. I was asked by our committee to address the debate for the acceptance of the resolution that will go forward to the AGM in London. Nobody spoke against the resolution as it really was a forgone conclusion as everyone in our group voted for it. I enjoyed gathering the evidence and searching the latest information for my presentation and it was well received. I had prepared sheets of facts and figures and stories from my time as a Midwife but they where left unopened from the moment I started talking, it came so natural to me the message from my heart. It made me sad that the Midwifery Service is in such a mess, I hope and pray it will improve soon.
The WI is the largest voluntary women’s organisation in the UK with more than 210,000 members in over 6,500 WIs, and over 21,000 new members joining in 2011. It plays a unique role in enabling women to develop new skills, giving them opportunities to campaign on issues that matter to them and their communities, and provides wide-ranging activities for members to get involved in.
visit www.thewi.org.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/15/midwife-shortage-dangerously-high
Last month it was our WI’s turn to Host the Beacon Group Meeting, it’s not a meeting it’s a social evening and usually we entertain in house, but this year we brought in the Barbers Shop Singer, local lads who have won many accolades for their performance. I have known most of them for years as AJ was a member for a while but work and other commitments intervened . They work hard and it shows,
it was a brilliant night, everyone commented on its success.
http://www.cottontownchorus.co.uk
Been shopping for my trip, always like to have something special for my holidays. I was very lucky Marks & Sparks where having a sale so it didn’t take me long to find bargains. I felt very energised for a couple of days so I enjoyed working on the garden as I had a problem. Last year I had pebbles put around the borders at the front of the house to reduce the amount of weeds that where becoming the bane of my life. I get very few weeds at the back of the property because we are protected by fencing bushes and trees. The front is open plan with grass verges all the way up the road that where full of weeds last year. Because of the financial cuts the Council decided not to cut the grass or weed, it was a big problem because road signs and street names in places where covered over with long grass. People complained, so now the Council mow some grassed areas and leave others that are not a priority. Anyway, I have three Hostas under these pebbles that I thought would have died due to the amount of week killer we applied and the membrane and pebbles that was placed over them. Imagine my surprise as I watched these three black mountains steadily rise up from the pebbles. Eventually I decided to act and dug up one of the Hostas, it took me three hours, they are all huge and I almost filled the green bin. So I freed the other two from their black mountain and they are growing fast, will decide what to do this winter whilst they are dormant.
Look who is peeping threw the pebbles
Free At Last
