Ever so close

Our Eugene/Springfield Days for Girls team met last weekend, with new and returning volunteers.  We are getting ever so close to having sewn enough items to fill the request for more kits to go to Kenya in January.  

Some of the volunteers ventured into sewing different items, so we had a variety of things going on.

As far as purchased items go, what we need most now is girls' cotton or cotton blend underpants, sizes 10-14.  They should be as colorful as you can find, in brief or hipster styles (no bikini, thong or boy shorts styles).  Walmart currently has 12-packs for $5.96, which works out to 50 cents a pair.  Target has 12-packs for $5.99, with free (holiday) shipping if you order online.

Donna, an Arizona friend who spent the summer in Eugene, and was a dedicated Days for Girls volunteer, continues to sew back at home.  

Donna and her friend Maxine have completed 269 flannel liners, just in October and November.  Awesome!  

Please join us at our future workdays.  We meet at Our Sewing Room at 5th and Main in Springfield.  Come for the whole day, come for a portion.  Our next few gatherings are:

December 15, 10:00-4:00

January 18, 10:00-5:00

February 15,  10:00-5:00

March 15, 10:00-5:00

Mark your calendars!

Heather, a health teacher at Sisters High School, is taking 18 students and adults to Uganda in the spring.  The local community has requested 500-700 feminine hygiene kits!  I've been working with her aunt, Ellen, to help them set up a Central Oregon team.  They had their first workday Thursday at Quiltworks in Bend, and had 19 enthusiastic volunteers from Sisters, Bend and LaPine show up.  Fantastic!  I suspect we'll be making some kits for Uganda soon.

Days for Girls International is featured as one of 50 global heroes in Safe Magazine!  We are on page 84. This is their second issue of the magazine which highlights and celebrates leaders and organizations leading the way in the fight to end violence against boys and girls around the world, as well as those working tirelessly at the intersection of health and violence. 

Days for Girls will be part of their Twitter chat on Tuesday, November 25 from 10-11a.m. EST, which is the start of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. Co-hosted with Safe cover hero Alaa Murabit of the Voice of Libyan Women, the discussion will address ways each of us can get involved in ending violence in our own communities. You can join them by using the hashtag #HeroUp. http://bit.ly/1qeCe3G

See you next month!