WE had an inspiring speaker at our July Meeting. Dr. O'Loghlen's illustrated talk on his time as a volunteer doctor with the charity Community Action Nepal was both fascinating and enlightening, giving us a real insight into the lives of the people living in this remote part of the world.

He was in the part of Nepal which borders Tibet, so a peaceful area as essentially a Buddhist culture. The people have a hard life making a living from the land, which is mainly subsistence farming. In the villages there is no electricity. There is no free medical care or free education, apart from that provided by the charity. Belief in witch doctors is still greater than in Western medicine, though he was able to give basic training to local nurses who work at the centres set up by Community Action Nepal. Due to the harsh living conditions the Nepalese are the smallest in stature in the world, with a life expectancy of fifty or so years. Although there is a lot of hardship it is a beautiful country. The range of mountains includes Everest so tourism (mainly climbers and trekkers) is a major source of income for this area. Maureen Speight thanked Dr. O'Loghen for sharing his experiences of a very different way of life with us.

We then had our usual time for a chat over tea, coffee and cake before Audrey Whitehouse conducted the business meeting. She reported that the plans for various activities for our centenary celebrations are progressing well. Beth Milsom gave us information about a boat trip to include our disabled members which is being organised with the Riverside Centre. Our competition winners for a pottery item were 1st Daphne Glover, 2nd Sheila Allies and 3rd Sue Lavery. The annual competition for the “Rose Bowl” was won by Jo Bridges with Sheila Allies second and Angela Griffiths third.

As part of our Centenary celebrations a walking tour of Pershore took place last week. Two of our members had researched the lives of some of the first committee members in 1916, so led a walk along High Street and Bridge Street to see the houses where these women lived. This finished at The Angel, the location for the first meeting, where we enjoyed Pimms and nibbles.

We have no meeting in August, but thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund we have several events organised to celebrate our centenary. Our next meeting will be on September 8 at Wulstan Hall, Priest Lane at the usual time of 7.30pm. As always new members are very welcome.

JEAN BARTON