Articles of Interest

LONDON ALTRUSA CLUB In September I met with two members from the London Altrusa Club. Joy Daffon, club secretary, and Ann Broadbridge. They are lovely generous women who shared with me the club's projects as well as some of their problems. The most difficult of which is membership. Membership seems to be every club's bug-a-boo these days.One reason for their declining membership is difficulty in recruitment. Another is distance with members moving away or spread out in the greater London area. A problem to which we can relate. I told them how Atlanta and Dallas and now New York were handling this problem with cluster clubs. At any rate, as small as the London club is, they have great projects. Some are similar to ours. They have a fund of money and give it to projects such as the Ethiopian Gemini Trust. Ethiopia has a large population of twins which as the Trust's slogan suggests doubles their burden, as well as doubling their hope. The trust provides primary health care for the whole family. It also provides information on the prevention and spread of HIV/AIDS. It helps with education, has a youth program using the creative arts, provides credit to women to set up their own businesses and teaches job skills. An offshoot of the creative arts program of the Trust is the Adugna Dance Company. This dance company began in 1996 as an experimental project and is now an internationally acclaimed success story. One of the London Altrusans is an American actress named Christine Cole. She and her husband traveled to Ethiopia and he made a film covering their various projects.Another organization they support is The Thames Reach Bondway. This organization is dedicated to doing away with street homelessness. For a hands-on project, the club members crochet teddy bears during meetings to be distributed to children in hospital so that they may have something soft and cuddly in their beds with them.The above is just a sampling of the London Club's activities. Very impressive for a small group and I was glad to have had the opportunity to meet with them.Audrey BraverTaieri, New Zealand -- Our New Sister ClubDuring the Altrusa International Convention in San Juan, PR, I met Rosemary Watson from New Zealand. She told me her club was looking for a partner or sister club in the United States to exchange newsletters and project information.Since our former sister club, Winnipeg, Canada, seems to have disbanded, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to hook up with another foreign club. The Taieri Altrusa Club is the newest and fastest-growing club in New Zealand.I have just received an email from Rosemary advising me that they have just lost their Governor Lynnette Young whose funeral was today. She promises to send detailed information on their club's activities and projects as soon as things calm down a little. They have one in Nepal which sounds very interesting. Hopefully by the next newsletter. Audrey Braver