All our WI members are encouraged to become involved with our campaigns. They enable us to collaborate with other organisations to help raise awareness and increase the success of reaching a wider audience.
Find more information on the WI’s key campaigns we are currently working on here
Email pa@swfwi.org.uk to be part of a team dedicated to making change.
Dental Health Matters
Earlier this year, the WI proposed; there is a chronic shortage of NHS Dentists & people are suffering health issues as a result. The NFWI calls on the Government to increase investment in the training & retention of dentists & to review the current inadequate NHS contracts in order to ensure everyone can access an NHS dentist.
In June, the resolution was passed & now the campaigning begins with Suffolk West teaming up with Toothless in England & their Six Point Charter.
To make our voice heard, The Suffolk West PA Team have also written to the three new elected West Suffolk MPs voicing the WI’s concerns over the current provision of Dental care. So far, only Nick Timothy, MP for the West Suffolk constituency has replied. You can read the exchange by clicking the links below.
The PA Team are now chasing Peter Prinsley, MP for Bury and Stowmarket, and James Cartlidge, MP for South Suffolk for their replies, so watch this space!
Clean Rivers for People and Wildlife
The WI’s 2023 campaign encouraged members to make and support applications to create bathing waters in rivers across England and Wales as designated bathing areas play a key role in tackling river pollution.
With the help of Sudbury Gainsborough WI who held a tea party in the Stour and Sturmer WI, Haverhill Owls WI, Kedington WI & Radwinter WI who joined together to raise awareness, the River Stour Trust has now achieved designated bathing water status.
Suffolk West also held a Clean Rivers Coffee Morning with The River Lark Catchment Partnership. If you missed it you can catch up with their presentations below:
End Plastic Soup
Microplastic fibres are small plastic fragments shed from synthetic clothes when washed. As the fragments are too small to be caught by washing machine filters, they then flow into the sewage system and eventually into the ocean, where those fibres are often swallowed or absorbed by plants and fish.
Launched in 2017, our End Plastic Soup campaign explores the scale of the microplastic fibre pollution and calls on the government and industry to develop solutions to the problem.
In 2024 the WI are backing the bill to put filters on washing machines.
How can your WI help?
Our Suffolk West PA Team have created a template letter to send to your local MP to raise awareness to End Plastic Soup. We hope all our WIs will sign and send a copy.
To get involved, download the template below, address it to your local MP and edit any red text to reflect your WI details.
The WI has a rich history in campaigning.
Every August/September, your WI has the chance to submit a resolution to NFWI. Later that year, a resolution shortlist is released in the November issue of WI Life. This is your first glimpse at the resolutions that have been put forward for WI members to debate on.
Between November and February, you will have the chance to discuss and learn more about the issues. It’s then down to you in February to choose the resolution from the shortlist that you support the most. Your vote is then submitted to your Federation, collated and submitted to NFWI.
The resolutions with the most votes are then narrowed down, debated further and finally your WI collectively votes for the resolution they feel most passionately about in May. That vote is then submitted at the NFWI Annual Meeting where the votes are counted and the WI’s next campaign is revealed!
Our incredible campaign history spans more than 100 years and includes: Thinking Differently Autistic and ADHD Women and Girls (2022), Make Time for Mental Health (2018), SOS Honeybees (2009), Fairtrade (1990s) and Equal Pay for Equal Work (1943).
You can find out even more about the history of our campaign heritage here