Local Profile

Featuring profiles of prominent local people.

Marylyn Haines-Evans
Chair of Federations of Women’s Institutes in Wales

Marylyn, who lives locally near Manordeillo, has been Chair of the Federations of Women’s Institutes in Wales since June 2005, and she is stepping down in June this year. Her family have been very involved in the Women’s Institute for many years as her mother joined in 1940, and is still an active member of the Llangadog branch, and now her daughter is a member too.

Marylyn divides her time between helping her husband run their farm, working part-time as Deputy Superintendent Registrar conducting marriages, civil partnerships and naming ceremonies in a variety of venues in and around Carmarthenshire, whilst also finding time to carry out various duties for the Women’s Institute.

Last week, for example, she chaired the Welsh WI Conference in Llandudno where over 800 delegates attended. The theme of this year’s conference was “Mines and Mountains” and the conference welcomed Search & Rescue dog handlers, as well as their dogs Flash, a black Labrador, and Caddy, a springer spaniel! The handlers gave a talk about their job, explaining the challenges of their work and in fact had to leave the conference to go straight to a rescue mission on Snowdon!

Later the famous Welsh tenor Rhys Meiron gave a speech and also sang at the Conference, while another speaker was archaeologist David Chapman of Ancient Arts (www.ancient-arts.org) who gave a fascinating insight into how people lived in the Bronze Age.

Marylyn tells us the WI going forward is involved in several campaigns, one of which is “SOS for Honey Bees” highlighting the disappearing honey bee population in the UK, a vitally important issue which needs more publicity so people are aware of the problem. Another national campaign is “Women Reaching Women” which highlights violence against women.

In Wales itself, the WI has been conducting a mentoring scheme which encourages women to enter into public life, for example one member has been encouraged to become a JP, another to stand for the Welsh Assembly. They are trying to encourage women to have the confidence to improve the quality of life for women in their own community by actively participating in public life.

A further popular campaign has been to encourage gardens and/or wildlife areas to be created in schools so that children can plant flowers and vegetables and watch them grow. However the enthusiasm the children took home to their parents had to be followed up by a “Get Cooking” project as sometimes there was a need to educate the parents how to cook some of the produce taken home! Marylyn, as governor of Llangadog school and on the Council of the British Nutrition Foundation, has been very involved in these schemes.

Marylyn is still very much involved in Llangadog’s WI attending their monthly meetings, as well as going to the National Board of Trustees meetings every 2 months, in addition to visiting and speaking at as many other Women’s Institute meetings in Wales as she can. If anyone is interested in joining the Women’s Institute, the Llangadog branch meet on the first Thursday of the month in the YMCA Hall, Llangadog – for further information ring Gwyneth on 01550 777696.