Four women, who are members of the charity Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland, have been awarded OBEs and MBEs for their work transforming communities.
Since 1890 the New Years Honours List has been announced at the end of every year to recognise the achievements and service of people across the UK. The most recent edition was, as always populated by characters striving to really make a difference. In and among them were four women who are part of the women’s rights charity Soroptimist International Great Britain and Ireland.
The charity is a global volunteer movement that is best interpreted as ‘the best for women’ and is comprised of 80,000 members in 124 countries.
Below is a list of the four women who received recognition from the charity, they can be described as nothing short of today’s modern superheroes.
Dr Kay Linnell
Kay has been a member of the women’s charity for the past 40 years and was awarded an OBE for her achievements. She specialises in forensic accounting and areas of litigation support including family, civil and criminal matters.
Kay’s most recent work includes her involvement in the Justice For Subpostmasters Alliance movement which was established to expose the failures of the Post Office, its Board, management and computer system.
‘The Justice For For Subpostmasters Alliance, JFSA, exists to regather the money wrongly taken from sub-postmasters and to recover their losses. It is only one of the struggles for justice that I have been involved with for so many years,’ Kay said.
What’s more, since joining Soroptimist International, Kay has held several roles including Regional President for the Southern England Region – and was originally a member of the charity’s Greater London club which was the first charted in the UK.
Ruth Smith
Ruth was awarded an MBE for her services to communities in Jersey in Kenya where she helped set up schools for children that had previously been deprived of the experience of learning.
At just 23-years-old Ruth moved to Jersey in 1973 and since then she has worked as a youth support worker and a part-time teacher where she specialises in English and psychology.
In 2014, Ruth took a gap year to travel to Australia, South Africa and Kenya where she founded a school in the town of Malindi.
‘I established my own school in 2015, self-funded, initially as a early-years school because so many children were not attending school,’ Ruth explained. ‘Today, it supports nearly 300 pupils, from early years up to Year 6 and employs 18 staff.’
The school is registered as a charity in Jersey called The Friends of Malindi Bright Future Academy. Ruth visits regularly, often three months at a time, and is next due to visit in early 2025.
Pamela Swain
Born in Fleetwood, Lancashire, Pamela has been awarded an MBE for her efforts in dental nursing. She currently works as the Chief Executive of the British Association of dental Nurses (BADN) and has done since 1992.
‘Dental nurses are the Cinderella staff of the dentistry profession – and dentistry is itself a Cinderella service,’ Pamela said. ‘It does not get the recognition that other areas of the health services get.’
Pamela continued: ‘Dental nurses are often paid minimum wages – even when they work for an NHS practices they are not recognised as NHS staff, and so do not have access to the benefits enjoyed by NHS employees.
‘Many dental nurses work part time, so their earnings are relatively low, despite the important job they do. I’m proud to be a part of the work BADN does in supporting and promoting dental nurses.’
As well as working for BADN, Pamela is also the Editor of the British Dental Nurses’ Journal and writes regular columns for several dental publications.
Elspeth Robinson
In 2002 Elspeth founded the Kumi Community Foundation – a rehabilitation programme for children with disabilities in Eastern Uganda. It is these kinds of efforts that earned her the MBE in this year’s Honours.
Elspeth is based in Darlington, County Durham and has been a member of the Soroptimist group in the town for over 19 years.
Detailing her achievements, Elspeth remarked: ‘I first went to Kumi Hospital in Uganda following my redundancy after working as a physiotherapist for nearly 40 years.
’28 visits later, my input has progressed into the Kumi Community Foundation, a registered charity, which has changed my life. I started by treating a few children with disabilities in the hospital rehab department and gradually, we developed a programme based in the rural community for families living in extreme poverty and with disabilities and/or malnourishment.’
Elspeth visits Kumi every year and stays for about ten weeks as she supports individuals in remote areas of the Ugandan bush. While in the UK, she fundraises for the programme.
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