Soroptimist International (SI) Costa del Sol was born in 2006 with some difficulties: "The beginnings were not easy because the six founding members, who were from Soroptimist but from Denmark, wanted to found a club, which had to be Spanish-speaking and with a mix of members. It was complicated, so they asked the European federation to accept having an English-speaking club, even though English was not the official language in the country. That was not allowed by Soroptimist International Europe at that time," recalls SI Costa del Sol president Laura Domínguez. Finally, the federation agreed and since then the NGO has been working on the coast to improve the situation and the general status of women and girls, among other things. 

In Mijas, one of the aspects worked on is gender violence, with its projects and collaborating with the group Viogenex. "There are several aspects in which we help the women: we pay for a hotel for three days, we feed them, we give them clothes if they don't have any, thanks to Age Care, which produces all the clothes that are given to women in this situation", said the former president of SI Costa del Sol, Aura Roderick, who also thanked the Lions Club of La Cala for their financial contribution, as well as the participation of other groups in the Viogenex group. 

Gender violence

"They are a very coordinated group who are there to attend to the first needs in terms of clothing, food and accommodation," said the councillor for Foreigners and the Environment, Arancha López (Cs), who also thanked the Soroptimists for their "environmental actions" such as the collaboration to create "an urban forest in La Cala de Mijas". The councillor for Social Services, Hipólito Zapico (PSOE), also praised the work carried out by the group. "It is an extraordinary job they are doing, they provide fantastic support to the work done by the Social Services. I want to highlight their ability to provide solutions to complex situations," said the councillor, referring to cases of gender violence, but also to the collaboration they are doing with the Municipal Food Bank, which they have been supplying with fresh produce since the pandemic. SI Costa del Sol also participates in the solidarity tables and is involved in many other projects such as Nourish your Optimism, which was born "thinking about how we can make the food system more sustainable; it is something important because we are not the only ones who will live in this world, and we are taking too much out of it," explained the vice-president, Daphne Theunissen.

Sustainable food

As part of this sustainable food project, Soroptimist gave the participants organic seeds of plants such as basil and mint. They also received a gift from Mijas Town Hall in the form of a plaque for their 15 years of work, which was presented to them by the Councillor for Foreigners. During the event, candles were also lit for this NGO and a video, produced by Mijas Comunicación, was presented to thank a dozen groups for their collaboration with Soroptimist International. They participated in the video by dancing to the song 'Jerusalema'. 

The NGO

Soroptimist International is a worldwide women's NGO, with 72,000 members in more than 120 countries, with representation at the UN. In Spain, it has five clubs, one based in Mijas Costa. They work to improve the situation and status of women and girls in general in areas such as equality, education, and female leadership.
 

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