International Women’s Day Brunch 2025

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY BRUNCH 2025

A joyful brunch for our joint communities

SATURDAY 8TH MARCH 2025

NOSTOS
63a Holland Rd
(Palmeira Square)
Hove BN3 1BA

Time: 9.30-11.30am

JOIN US TO CELEBRATE ALL
THAT IT IS TO BE WOMEN
#AccelerateAction

This will be a celebratory morning event with a maximum of 50 women and men

There’s no refund on your ticket but you’re welcome to pass the ticket on to someone else, just let us know.

ORGANISERS:

JO-ANNE GODDEN OF RUBYMOON

MI ELFVERSON OF EYE STORM

QUESTIONS: [email protected]

MENU BY NOSTOS

Nostos – a place where a nostalgic feeling of the past meets a delightful smell of the present and a grateful smile for the future.

Nostos is our local Greek restaurant that usually only opens up in the evening for delicious dinner and wine.

We have now got the whole place to ourselves from 9.30-11.30am and they will be serving a buffet with morning treats including spinach and feta pies, sausage rolls, cake as well as tea and coffee, catering for vegans, non-vegans and gluten intolerance.

SPEAKERS:

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #AccelerateAction, which emphasises the need to act quickly to remove barriers that prevent women from reaching their full potential.

Nilma’s story on her work to support and empower women all around the word will be truly inspiring.

Nilma Dole-Williams

Nilma has been a part of the FCDO (Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office) for more than 12 years. She is a volunteer cricket coach in Sussex and has played for the Brighton and Hove CC Women’s teams.

A former Peru Women’s National Cricketer, Nilma was part of the team that won bronze at the Women’s South American Cricket championships (WSACs) in 2016.

Prior to this, Nilma was a journalist and magazine editor, and also a BBC Trust Climate Change certified journalist. She was a war correspondent and defence columnist, covering the end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Nilma has been on the Board for many organisations, such as The American Women’s Literary Club Peru (AWLC), The Diplomatic Spouses Club of London (DSCL) and Active Sussex.

Nilma is a passionate advocate of EDI and Female Empowerment, giving talks at schools and universities, and supports FCDO objectives to make a positive impact around the world. She is now building a new cricket legacy in Cambodia, after the ICC gave Associate Membership in 2022.

Some of the charity work she has done has been teaching English to refugees and asylum seekers in Brighton, empowering and educating women in Nigeria affected by Boko Haram violence, and using cricket as a female empowerment sport in Peru and now Cambodia.

Nilma won the coveted Women in Sports Leadership Scholarship (first prize) in 2024 to do the Master in Sport Directorship at the Manchester Metropolitan University.

Joanne will share her journey from being an ‘angry teenager’ in the North-East through her experience as an educator and to her re-awakened feminism.

Joanne Smith

Menopause/Women’s Health Activist and Educator

With 30 years’ experience in education, Joanne passionately believes in the transformative power of education, both within formal learning environments and beyond. In recent years, following her frustrations at how uninformed both women, and medical practitioners, are about the impact of hormones on women’s health and wellbeing, Joanne’s feminism was reactivated and improving education on this issue became her focus.

Joanne began by raising awareness about menopause in her own workplace by campaigning for a workplace menopause policy – which was achieved! She then raised awareness through local community events and recently became vice-chair of her GP Surgery Patient Participation Group (PPG), helping to shape the health centre’s policies and practices, particularly around women’s health awareness.

After leaving her position as a University Lecturer’s she has embarked on an MSc in Women’s Health, because ‘knowledge is power’ and Joanne’s mission is now to share her knowledge to educate and empower women so they can make the best choices for their own health.

2024 SPEAKERS:

Atonte Semira

Head of Community, UN Women UK

UN Women is the United Nation’s entity dedicated to gender equality.

We’re honoured to have Atonte with us from the UN Women UK’s head office, to talk about this year’s focus on economic empowerment of women and addressing poverty.

In a world facing multiple crises that are putting immense pressure on communities, achieving gender equality is more vital than ever. Ensuring women’s and girls’ rights across all aspects of life is the only way to secure prosperous and just economies, and a healthy planet for future generations.

Hanan Razek

BBC Correspondent

Hanan Razek is an award winning correspondent with experience from Field Production, Breaking News, Video Journalism and an MA focussed on Global Media and Post-national Communication.

Hanan will tell us about the production of her powerful BBC documentary “Sex for Healing: Uncovering the dark side of the spiritual healing world”, which reveals the hidden world of sexual assault and exploitation of women by men working as religious healers known as “raqi” in Morocco and Sudan.

Hanan will talk about the power of using media to educate and create awareness – and how this can empower women to speak out and create change.

Jo-Anne Godden

Designer with her own ethical swim range RubyMoon

Jo will be sharing how her successful design company RubyMoon has empowered women in south America by sharing the profit in support.

Jo founded RubyMoon to use her skillset to promote women’s economic and social empowerment globally, whilst turning fashion and textiles into a force for good with positive environmental impact.

Since 2010 over 2020 women and their families have been positively impacted through micro-finance by purchasing Gym To Swim activewear clothing from RubyMoon, which also cleans the ocean of unwanted drift fishnets

Mi Elfverson FRSA

Founder of The Vlog Academy
Creator of EyeStorm Women

When Mi created the first EyeStorm Visibility Programme for Women, she never imagined it would grow to a multi award winning community with events, training and a video podcast in just a few years.

Now with the groundbreaking speaker training programme and live event for women, EyeStorm Women is supporting even more women to step forward and speak up.

Mi will announce the new EyeStorm Impact Report 2025, which we all can participate in to take action for gender equality.

2023 SPEAKER: Samaneh Savadi

Iranian feminist and gender equality advocate, based in Brighton

I will talk about the everyday resistance of Iranian women and their civil disobedience to fight misogyny and discrimination.

I came to the UK 8 years ago to do my master degree at Sussex university.

I studied International criminal law and then migration studied at Sussex.

I am a founder of Cheragh Academy, an online platform to fight against sexual harassment in the workplace. We design and teach different courses to make the workplace safe for everyone.

I also, in a personal capacity through my social platforms, raise awareness about motherhood and reproductive rights.

2023 SPEAKER: Lisa Baskott

Founder of 2nd Line Defence, Chair of the Judicial Diversity Committee SE England, Security Industry Authority (SIA) Licensed door supervisor, based in Hove

I’ll talk about how championing a movement to bring about systemic change within the UK’s front line security industry can help to address society’s response to gender-based violence, by highlighting the fundamental rights of women and vulnerable groups to feel safe on the streets at night.

As part of a commitment to serving her community, Lisa has been a serving Magistrate for 10 years; she sits as a Presiding Justice in both the Adult and Youth Courts in Sussex.

Lisa became a qualified Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensed door supervisor in September 2021. Since then she has worked as part of security teams covering special events at the Hilton Brighton Metropole and The Grand Brighton hotel, including the Labour Party Conference.

LOST in the Lane’s ethos is to serve elevated seasonal food from an open kitchen as well as decadent drinks, cocktails and wines, in a stylish relaxed environment.

If you’re new to finding LOST, they’re nestled in the middle of Nile Street, moments from the Town Hall and a short walk to the sea.

LOST’s head chef, Sophie Taverner, designs dishes inspired by the love of bold world flavours, local produce and simple interesting ingredients.

MEAT CHOICE:

VEGGIE CHOICE:

We look forward to seeing you!

Jo Godden, Mi Elfverson and women of the world

EVENING PLAN

6.30pm Arrival (buy your drink)

7pm All seated and Welcome talk