From ‘jam and Jerusalem’ to Herald headlines
Umtentweni WI was founded in 1935 and the group meets at the Tweni Library's Activities Room on the second Thursday of each month at 2pm.
The Women’s Institute (WI) was founded in the delightfully named town of Stoney Creek in Canada way back in 1897 primarily as a way to get farmers’ wives together. From that small, rural village the organisation spread and can now be found all over the world – including Umtentweni.
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WI’s best-known member is Queen Elizabeth II and she had the honour of cutting the cake at the United Kingdom’s WIs centenary celebrations in 2015.
Often the WI is only associated with food, baking or making jam and pickles. `Jam and Jerusalem’ was the tagline once given to WIs by a Red Top tabloid journalist.
However, the WI has evolved into an organisation that plays a huge role in today’s world of enabling women to better understand issues that matter to them and their communities.
There are two WIs on the South Coast, Tweni and Port Shepstone.
Umtentweni WI was founded in 1935 and the group meets at the Tweni Library’s Activities Room on the second Thursday of each month at 2pm.
Colleen Haggard from the South Coast Herald was the July speaker.
“Much like the WI a local newspaper is community-driven,” she said. “Our recipe for success has always been based on our localness – we tell the stories, sing the praises and take up the cudgels for the people of the South Coast.”
She also gave a brief history of the newspaper which was started a year before the Tweni WI and spoke about her many years of being a journalist and editor.
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