Awards, Scholarships
and Grants

Local Community
Service

International
Outreach

Soroptimist International of Chico has been directly involved with several global causes. Two past areas of focus have been land mine awareness and orphaned children in Nepal.

Steps Without Fear—Land Mine Removal Campaign

Club members called a special brainstorming meeting regarding land mines. Here, the members were presented with the facts on the devastation that abandoned land mines have created around the world. They were inspired that their club could make a significant impact in changing the lives of women and children in the affected countries by bringing awareness of the land mine issues to the Chico community.

The Chico club designed two concurrent campaigns: “A Step and A Dollar”, to raise awareness and generate symbolic and significant monetary contributions, and “Messages of Hope”, to generate compassionate letters, written on “footprints,” from the children of Chico to children whose homelands are affected by land mines. In less than a month, the club successfully communicated their vision to the Chico community and presented the visiting Soroptimist International President with both funds for land mine removal and boxes of “footprints” which were delivered to children in Afghanistan.

This became a Program Model and used by other Soroptimist clubs in the federation to develop similar projects of their own. For the Chico club, this project did much more than connect the members to the larger Soroptimist efforts; it illuminated the concern common to women everywhere: issues of safe play areas, safe gardens, safe passageways and safe workspace

Namaste House—Children’s Orphanage in Nepal

Contributions from the Chico club help to provide a home, medical care and education to children in Nepal who have been orphaned by war, illness and tragedy. This project was the vision of a local woman who was inspired to undertake this enormous venture after a visit to a children’s home while traveling in Nepal with her son.

The connection between Namaste House and the Chico club began in 2000, when she presented her idea at a club program meeting. From there, the club supported and encouraged her mission to provide a safe place for 48 of Nepal’s orphans.

This commitment to service, from a local visionary acting at an international level for the advancement of human rights, is a prime example of the Soroptimist spirit .

Partial list of other international activities:

Sponsored Seeds of Learning Project Scholarship for a child in Nicaragua

Provided Namaste House orphans with scholarships

Supported international projects in Nara, Japan; St. Albans, England; and Makati, Phillipines

Supported a facility for orphans and the elderly in Zambia

Purchased foot pumps for irrigation and for safflower oil presses allowing women to Zambia to start their own businesses

Supported an AIDS orphanage in Tanzania

Provided Camperships to the Ronald McDonald House for children with catastrophic illnesses (Susanville)

Provided money for medical and dental care for children in orphanages in Tanzania and in Nepa