Africa

Gwen left this morning for Kenya,  carrying kits made by four Oregon teams.  I'm so appreciative of the leaders of the other teams in our state being willing to add their kits to this batch.  The Newport Rotary group representatives are joining Gwen in Kenya, and took 50 of our kits, and made 25 of their own.  Gwen took 175 made by our team, Central Oregon, Medford and Portland, plus some spare parts.  What a wonderful statewide effort!  Two hundred fifty girls are about to receive life-changing gifts!  Thank you all for your part in this.

Now, I thought, we can start building up a stash of kits.  But just a few days later, Maggie learned of a friend going to Zimbabwe August 13, who is willing to take 50 kits for the orphanage/school we donated (65 kits) to a few months ago.  I think we can do this!  We got a lot of finished components turned in on our last work day, and a batch of shields is being completed as I write.

I haven't counted how many different bags we have yet, but I have some here that I'll be adding the drawstrings to, and others were brought in or sent to us recently.  I like to have as much variety as possible in the bag fabrics (no duplicates in a distribution would be ideal).  Since these kits are of such a personal nature, it would be nice if they had little chance of getting mixed up.   If you make bags, making several of the same fabric is fine--I just don't put them all in the same distribution.  So, if you're working on bags, and have any ready to have drawstrings inserted, please let me know when and where I can get them from you.

At our July 19th workday, we mostly focused on  the flannel liners.  We have such an efficient crew, and the making of liners, while pretty simple, gets divided into many "assembly line" steps:   Washing, drying, pressing the flannel material, cutting into 9" and 6" strips, serging the 6" strips down to 5.5", pressing/pinning the 5.5" strips (wrong sides together) down the center of the 9" strips, sewing them down,

cutting these sewn strips into 9" squares,

serging all around the edges (resulting in 8.5" squares), and securing the serged thread ends.

Joyce was one of several who sewed at home this month--she brought in a huge batch of liners she made at home (plus lots of bags) to add to our day's total.

Wow!  What a great group! You're such a joy to work with!

Our inventory of underwear is very low.  This batch of kits going to Zimbabwe will use 100 pair.  We need mostly girls' sizes 10 and 12, and a few 14s.  Feedback is that cotton briefs work best, so that's what we are buying and requesting.  Underwear fabrics to avoid are prints containing people/animals/insects (butterflies are OK), words, "glam", weapons, and anything culturally specific or religious. Happily, stores are starting their back-to-school sales, bringing the price well below a dollar a pair.  Walmart has 12-packs of girls Fruit of the Loom briefs for $6.79 (57¢ each), although they're currently out of stock online.  Target has  9-packs of Hanes briefs for $6.49 (72¢ each).  They often have several whites in a package, but Laura does a lovely job of dying them for us.  These prices apparently are the same online or in the stores.

FLASH UPDATE:  Sunday, August 2:   Target has Fruit of the Loom 12-packs (9 plus 3 bonus) for $6.00.  In today's paper there's a $5. off 3 Fruit of the Loom items that you can use to buy, bringing the price down to $.36 per pair!   If you don't get the paper, you can get the coupon on your mobile device by texting FRUIT to 827438.
This is the best price I've seen in 2+ years.  This is a great time to really stock up for our future distributions!
Remember--briefs are the best for us, and be mindful of the prints (listed above) that we can't use.  Bright colors are wonderful.

Our next work day is August 19th. Hope to see you there!

Lots of links!

This month I'm sharing several links you can follow.

Here's an article shared with me about breaking the silence surrounding menstruation, by the Indian woman who founded Menstrupedia.

I just got this email from DfG headquarters.  There are so many of us worldwide putting together kits to ease the burden, and then we hear of even more tremendous needs, like that of these refugees from South Sudan.  A few months ago, we had an offer of transport to Uganda, and sent all the kits we had--34, I think--to Days For Girls Uganda.  Here's information about the refugees and the kits needed for them:

The refugee settlement in Adjumani, northern Uganda currently hosts more than 109,000 refugees from South Sudan and this number is expected to grow (UNHCR). Of these, 16% are females between the ages of 12 to 59 (UNHCR), meaning that roughly 17,000 women are in their reproductive years and may be experiencing their monthly periods. While Uganda has gone to tremendous lengths to support their guests during this period of conflict in their home country, the need is enormous. The cost of providing and managing disposable pads is a massive burden, and is often put behind more critical needs like food and shelter. 

And Days for Girls Uganda has a solution! We want to send 6,000 washable menstrual hygiene kits to Adjumani Refugee Settlement in December 2015. Days for Girls Uganda is working with the support of the Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees to raise money to provide washable menstrual hygiene kits for 6,000 women and girls in the Adjumani Refugee Settlement. 

Every donation counts! A $7 donation is enough to supply a full kit and all the logistical costs needed to deliver it right to a girl! Today, we celebrate ‪#‎SouthSudan‬'s Independence Day, and a great way to show your support for the people of South Sudan is through empowering women and girls. ‪#‎DignityCantWait‬ ‪#‎MenstruationMatters‬ ‪#‎SouthSudanIndependence‬‪#‎AlliedForAdjumani‬

Here's the link for that fundraiser:  https://www.crowdrise.com/alliedfor…/fundraiser/DaysforGirls

Right now, our Eugene team is working on finishing up a big order going to Kenya.  Because of the kits we sent to Uganda, we were starting from scratch when we received the request from Claire in Newport for 50 kits to add to the 25 they had made.  More recently, we received a request from Gwen, of Friends of Kenya Schools and Wildlife, for 125 more kits.  I asked teams around the state for their help, and happily between the Central Oregon, Medford, Portland and Eugene teams, we will be able to fill that request too.  This week I got three bags of lovely kits from Central Oregon--beautifully sewn, with great fabrics.

We also were the lucky recipients of a box of kit components from five women in the Contemporary Fiber Artists group in Corvallis.  They had heard about us through Laura at Textiles a Mano, who dyes our too-light undies. 

We are always on the lookout for quality flannel whose colors and pattern will hide the inevitable stains, so the girls won't be embarrassed to hang them in the sun to dry.  All the fabrics they chose are outstanding.  I was especially blown away by the red and purple flannel in these liners--hand dyed by Virginia with her unique sliding pleats method.  I can't imagine stains showing on them!  

This morning I received a link to this new video made by a team in Georgia.  It's a well-done overview of what we do.  One of the other videos I love to show, What would  you do?, is on daysforgirls.org--with several others.

The washcloths I recommend for weight, colors and price are 8-packs by Room Essentials, sold at Target.  They are on sale now for $2.75.  I've typically bought them for $4.00, so this is a great time to stock up on medium to darker colors that will hide stains.

This Sunday, the 19th, is our July workday at Our Sewing Room.  We are there from 10 to 5--come for as long as your schedule allows.  We will have jobs for people who serge, people who sew, and those who can wield a pair of scissors, a pen, operate (or want to learn how to operate) the snap press or Accuquilt die cutter.  It's helpful to bring your sewing machine or serger if  you'd like to work on those, and sharp scissors and a seam ripper.  We want you to do what you enjoy and do best.

Dutch Bros is across the parking lot and Our Sewing Room is surrounded by several places to get lunch.  There's a fridge if you bring your own.  Free on-street parking is available all day on weekends. Plus, we can use the bank parking lot across the street--but please ask for a permit to put on your dashboard so you don't get towed!

Maggie Donahue, who arranged for our kits to go to Zimbabwe, has an opportunity for any of us interested in sewing for an additional cause.  She'll explain all about it between 11 and noon on Sunday.  Her proposal is below, along with some photos:

Proposal

Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center 501©3 nonprofit requests partial or total donation of sewing skills to design and construct mbira bags and/or pillows out of fabric made in Zimbabwe.  The items would be sold to benefit Kutsinhira’s Zimbabwe Community Development Project.  (Please visit the website <kutsinhira.org> for information about the organization and the projects it supports in Zimbabwe.)

The fabric is called Kudhinda cloth. The colorful designs and patterns are achieved with potato prints. It is the favorite of several of our members and will be increasingly rare since the company is going out of business.  

One of the instruments Kutsinhira students play is the mbira, a small wooden soundboard with metal keys.  Students appreciate protective bags for their instruments.  Pillow covers made out of the fabric will brighten any room.

Zimfest, an annual music festival held in the Northwest August 13-16 has a marketplace that would be an ideal sales opportunity.  Patience Chaitezvi, Kutsinhira’s 2015 sponsored musician will be touring the U.S. this fall and would be able to bring the goods to other communities.

If you are interested in this project, please contact Maggie Donahue  maggiedona@comcast.net   541-342-8189.  I am confident I can find a few members with sewing skills who would be willing to help if desired.

Sincerely,

Maggie Donahue

For Kutsinhira’s Zimbabwe Community Development Project  

Some of you indicated an interest in this last month.  It'll be interesting to hear Maggie and see what she brings Sunday.  Hope to see you then!