Dear Members,

May the joy of the Holidays bring peace and love to our hearts!
December is here and with it the dark days of the year. Fortunately, we have many celebrations ahead, which bring some light and happiness to our holidays.

First of all, I would like to ask our members to please pay attention to the edition of the Bulletin as it combines the December and January issues. Please browse through it carefully for the programmes our committees have prepared for these two
months so you do not miss them.

I would like to say how nice it was to meet our members at our November luncheon. We had the great pleasure in hearing Mrs. Elisabeth Andersson from the SOS Children´s Villages, who told us about the huge and important work she develops in order to make a difference to so many children and their families in the world. Working in many countries, SOS Children´s Villages tries to fi nd solutions not only for the future, but for today’s problems as well. We are happy to congratulate Mrs. Andersson on her appointment as Senior Advisor at the Head Offi ce SOS/Kinderdorf International and wish her all the best in this new challenge.

As I write these lines I am starting to concentrate on our next philanthropic event which is our December luncheon. On this occasion we are going to direct our efforts to help an important organization in Turkey - LÖSEV Foundation which helps children affected by leukaemia and their families. We are very grateful to HE Mrs. Zergun Koruturk, the Ambassador of Turkey and Mr. Cengiz K. Firat, Counsellor at the Embassy for their generous and kind support in helping our club make this a meaningful fundraising event. Dear members, do not forget, we count very much on your support as well. Please come and participate.

Taking care of the philanthropic part of our luncheon, I have the pleasure in announcing our new Philanthropic Chairperson, Mrs. Ellen Olrog, who graciously accepted to take over this function after Catherine Zawadzki asked to leave the Board due to personal reasons. We thank you Catherine for your effi cient work on the Philanthropic Committee and wish you all the best with your new commitments. Ellen, please feel welcome. We wish you good luck.

Thanking you all for this year and heartily wishing you a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Marilda Ericsson

President

Last Update: 1 December 2009