An update from the EEWI Newsletter

A big thank you to Virginia Hawke who ran our March meeting, the fruits of which are contained in the montage above. Info about Virginia's art classes are below. We were also very happy to welcome the Up For School project, details of which can be found here.

April Meeting
Bangladesh - Stories of Two Teachers
Tuesday 21st April 7pm 
We are very lucky to be able to welcome Tracy and Sinead Miller to our April meeting. Tracy and Sinead are mother and daughter who both teach at primary schools in Tower Hamlets. Last summer they travelled to Bangladesh together to teach at a Bangladeshi school and we have invited them to come and talk about their experiences.

We are also hoping to be joined by some members of the team from York Hall who are going to let us know about their women only health and fitness programme.

As usual we will be at our very own home of St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road. When looking at the Gallery Cafe on Old Ford Road, go through the gates on the left hand side and follow the garden path round to the right where you will see the hall. Free for members and £4 for visitors. Refreshments will be provided but contributions of the consumable as well as spendable type always very much welcomed.

April Coffee Morning
Kahaila Cafe
Friday 24th April 10.30pm
We will be visiting another cafe along Brick Lane. Kahaila is a community cafe and any profits it makes go to good causes, so we thought we would like to support it. It is at 135 Brick Lane close to Bacon St and we hope to see you there, have a natter and try out their wares.

march meeting: celebrating women even more!

Cornelia Parker's sculpture of mother of two Georgina Baker

We are continuing our celebration of International Women's Day at our evening meeting on 17th March 2015, 7pm for 7.30pm start. We are very pleased to invite Virginia Hawke along to run an art session around inspirational women. What you need to do is bring a photo or photos of your inspirational woman and Virginia will help us to create a piece of art to celebrate them. It could be someone from your own life, a famous or historical person - anyone that has made an impact on you. The session is aimed at all artistic abilities so if you think you have none, please don't worry as it is amazing what you can create with a bit of help and advice. It's probably a good idea to wear clothes that you don't mind getting specks of paint or glue on just to be on the safe side.

We're also selling off some of our excess stash of fabrics. Plus we'll be chossing - from a "hat" which of our members will be offered a place at the WI Centenary Celebration Garden Party in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. 

As usual we will be at  St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road. When looking at the Gallery Cafe on Old Ford Road, go through the gates on the left hand side and follow the garden path round to the right where you will see the hall. Free for members and £4 for visitors. Refreshments will be provided but contributions of the consumable as well as spendable type always very much welcomed.

You'll find details of our 20th March Coffee Morning and Afternoon Teas in the side bar on the right.

Looking forward to seeing you at one of our events very soon!

celebrate international women's day with us!

Come and join us for an evening of live music with Alice Barlow, Katherine Abbot and Priscilla Andershohn in a great venue... and it's free! At the Gallery Cafe from 7.30pm on 8th March.

EEWI are really pleased to be able to work with the Gallery Cafe to celebrate 2015's International Women's Day. Each year on March the 8th around the world people celebrate the achievements of women and shout out about the inequalities and injustices still taking place at home and abroad. We wanted to do something celebratory and, as this year's theme is 'Make it Happen', we thought we would put on an event for our members as well as the wider community and have invited three fantastic young women singer songwriters to perform for us;

Alice Barlow, Katherine Abbott, Priscilla Andersohn

As well as music, the Gallery Café serves wonderful food and has a range of beers, wines, coffees and teas. For more info about the café click here.

We really hope you can join us for an evening of celebration. Everyone is welcome (even men) so please spread the word. If you would like to know more about International Women's Day please click here.

Hope to see you there.

What's on in February

Yes! it's February already. This month we are all about keeping warm, safe and, erm, pancakes.

February Meeting Tuesday 17th 7pm for a 7.30pm start How to eco-refurbish your home along with how to fireproof your home. It's all about the home this month with two fabulous speakers with tips and advice to keep you safe and warm without breaking the bank or wrecking the environment.
As usual we will be at our very own home of St Margaret's House on Old Ford Road. When looking at the Gallery Cafe on Old Ford Road, go through the gates on the left hand side and follow the garden path round to the right where you will see the hall. Free for members and £4 for visitors. Refreshments will be provided but contributions of the consumable as well as spendable type always very much welcomed.

February afternoon tea Monday 2nd March 3.30pm Marks and Spencer's cafe in Westfield Stratford East. For  more info click here.

February coffee morning Friday 20th 10.30am venue TBC
March afternoon tea  Monday 2nd March 3.30pm venue TBC

Our coffee mornings and afternoon teas are a chance to have a cuppa or a coffee in a relaxed setting and have a chat - not necessarily about EEWI but then why would you want to talk about anything else?

Do you have a cafe or coffee shop you would love to try out? Please do let us know as we are always after new venues.

Pancakes!
Finally we thought we would let you know about an exciting pancake challenge taking place on, funnily enough, pancake day Tuesday 17th February - the same day as our meeting. The Great Spitalfields Pancake Race teams of four race up and down Dray Walk tossing pancakes and it's all in the name of charity. If you are interested please contact Alternative Arts by clicking here. And if you would like to co-ordinate an EEWI team please contact niki.stevens@btinternet.com as we definitely have some flippers if not a flipper in chief.

What's on in January!

Firstly a Happy New Year to everyone, the start of a year of lots of exciting things we hope. A new year often means learning new things so at our January Meeting we will be learning self defence. This is something we have wanted to do for a very long time and in the wondrous way that things happen at EEWI after an age of trying to find someone we realised a fantastic teacher was staring us right in the face. George Dobson is a local tutor who teaches self defence at St Paul's Cathedral School and has a wealth of experience teaching martial arts and boxing. George is working on a programme of self defence specifically for women but for our evening he as has asked that we let him know what sort of situation we are worried about so he can tailor the session a little bit to our needs . So if there was something you wanted to learn or a situation you were particularly nervous about, drop me a line at niki.stevens@btinternet.com. George will also be going through basic self defence techniques.

Tuesday 20th January 7pm for a 7.30pm start at St Margaret's House, Old Ford Road, E2 9PL. For those of you that haven't been there before we meet in the hall at the back of the building which you access by going through the black gates to the left of the Gallery Cafe and then follow the path round the garden to the right where you should see the hall.  At our self defence session not everyone needs to get involved and George is used to working with all ages but if you feel like you would like to try out some of the techniques please wear comfortable clothing. As ever there will be refreshments available and donations of any kind -  cash or consumables - are always very welcome.

Our coffee morning is at 10.30 onwards on Friday 23rd January 2015 We're finalising the arrangements, so do check the sidebar for details of location. at The Larder in Globe Road, opposite Prick your Finger yarnshop.

Christmas meetings!

For our last meeting of the year we thought we would share some good wine, some party snacks and some Christmassy songs. The amazing Lyn Gerald will be leading us in some traditional Christmas and gospel singing to warm our wintry chestnuts and lift our hearts.We will also have a raffle with (we hope) a range of prizes. We are also collecting gifts again for U-Turn Women's Centre. What we ask is that you buy an extra present that would be suitable for a female friend or family member, wrap it up and bring it along to the meeting. It doesn't have to cost very much but it is just for us to show that someone is thinking of the women who use the centre. We know that the presents we collect not only have a massive impact on the service users but it also takes some pressure off the charity itself. They distribute the presents at their Christmas meal. EEWI has been supporting U-Turn in this way since we began in 2007. Representatives from U-Turn will come along to the meeting to pick up the  gifts from us.

So we look forward to seeing you on the 16th December, 7pm onwards at St Margaret's House, 21 Old Ford Road, E2 9PL. The hall is situated at the back of the Gallery Cafe in St Margaret's House which you access by going through the black gates to the left of the cafe, follow the path round to the right and you should see the hall on the other side of the garden. There will be alcoholic and non alcoholic refreshments and a bit of Christmas baking BUT we are always up for additions and contributions towards this so if you fancy your hand at some mince pies or some Christmas savouries or you wanted to bring along a tipple, no one is going to have a problem with that.

As has become traditional for us, we are going to the Geffrye Museum for our December coffee morning and to visit their free annual exhibition, Christmas Past.  Join us at 10.30am on 19th December. All welcome - you don't have to be a member. For more info about the Geffrye Museum and how to get there click here. Entry is free.

it's our fabulous EEWI Christmas Market