Thanks to the loyal volunteers who worked on kit components at Our Sewing Room last Sunday while Mary Jo and I were not available! It's so nice to see the inventory being built up again. You are such an amazing group to work with--the donors of money or supplies, those of you who sew on our Sunday workdays, those of you who find it more convenient to work at home, and those of you who wear many of these hats. All of your help adds up to changing the lives of girls.
Donna sewed with us during the summer, and has continued in Arizona this winter. She's made 407 flannel T&T liners since leaving Eugene. This colorful stack of 168 liners represents just her January 1-18 sewing!
If you'd like to be on the mailing list for the Days for Girls International newsletter, go to their webpage and click on Get Our Newsletter. You might want to send the link to your friends too.
The January edition that just came out a few days ago has information about distributions in different countries. It has a great report from Gwen about distributing our kits in Kenya last fall:
From Oregon to Kenya
(there are photos in the DFG Newsletter that didn't want to go on this blog)
In 2003, my husband John and I started an NGO that supports community development in Kenya.
Based in Junction City, Oregon, Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife (FKSW) partners with Kenyan
NGO, Network for Eco-Farming in Africa (NECOFA) which is based in Molo. Together, we support
activities that focus on clean water, income generation, health and hygiene, food and nutrition and
education in 5 rural communities. In all of these communities, we have seen the need for feminine
hygiene materials and I was so excited when I learned last summer about Days for Girls and that there is
a team here in Eugene! I met with the team at their workday last June and asked if they would provide
100 kits for my trip to Kenya in September. I talked about our work in Kenya and showed them photos of
some of the girls who would be the recipients of the kits they were making. The team members were
thrilled to have a direct connection to the girls and at the end of August, I helped them put together the
kits. I also took photos of them to show the girls.
In Kenya, I called the Kenyan Days for Girls representative to see if she could come with us for the
distribution but unfortunately, she already had other plans. On September 10, we arrived at Lake Baringo,
loaded the 100 kits in a boat and headed for Kokwa Island in the middle of the lake. Our destination was
Kokwa Primary School, where FKSW supports many of the students with scholarships. There we met
Lillian Lemukut and Irene Lechingei, two young women who had grown up on the island and had returned
after finishing their university studies, Lillian as a teacher and Irene as a healthcare professional. For the
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past two years, Lillian has been leading group discussions on the island with the girls and the women
about challenges they face, like HIV/AIDs, early marriage, pregnancy, FGM and other women’s issues. I
had asked Lillian and Irene to do the presentation of the kits to the girls. Together, we looked at the kits
and talked about each item and its purpose, how to care for the kits and the underwear in different sizes.
For the distribution, all of the girls at the school from 4th through 8th grade (about 80 girls) came together
in one classroom. Lillian did a wonderful job of explaining the use of the kits, asking the girls questions as
she went along to make sure they understood the name of each piece and its use. She invited one of the
girls to go through the demonstration again for her classmates. There were a few nervous giggles from
the audience but she did a great job. Then we handed out the kits. As the distribution progressed, the
girls’ happy voices grew louder and louder as they examined their own kits and showed each other the
colors and designs on their bags, shields and liners.
We left 20 kits at the school with Lillian and Irene for girls who might not have been at school that day or
for other girls who come to the school as new students and don’t have a kit.
The feedback we’ve received from the girls is really positive. They say, after two months of use, that the
materials are easy to wash with the soap they have at school, the liners are very comfortable, they can
wear them for a long time without leaking, they don’t “burn” (I’m going to find out what this means!) and
that they love the colors and designs. They also told us that almost no one needs the size 16
underwear!
I attended the Eugene team workday in November and showed them the photos and video of the
distribution. It was so much fun to see the kits they had made there in the hands of the happy girls! I
stayed for their workday and I even sewed liners for some of the 300 kits I’ve ordered to distribute at our
other schools during our visit to Kenya in January. I’m sewing liners at home, too!
I really appreciate the fact that we haven’t had to pay a cent for these kits! FKSW did make a
donation to the Eugene Team in August to cover some of their costs but I wanted to do more. I’ve been a
member of Rotary International for the past 10 years and this past Tuesday at our club service
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committee meeting, I requested $1000 for the team to purchase materials for the kits. The request was
approved! I so enjoy working with these women and the service they provide to girls and women through
their volunteer efforts is an incredible gift.
Thank you to Days for Girls!!!!
Sincerely,
Gwen Meyer
Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife www.fksw.org
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DFG AT THE UNITED NATIONS
Celeste Mergens, the woman who founded Days for Girls 6 years ago, will be speaking to the United Nations on March 12! That forum and publicity should help bring us closer to meeting the Days for Girls vision of every girl and woman in the world with ready, feasible access to quality sustainable hygiene & health education by 2022.
JOIN US NEXT MONTH on Sunday, February 15. We cut, press, sew and serge from 10 to 5 at Our Sewing Room, 5th and Main in Springfield. We have fun working and know that we are making difference in the lives of young women in impoverished areas of the world.
