Happy New Year!

2016

What did we accomplish last year?  We provided kits for distribution in Kenya (3 times), India, Haiti, and to 20 foreign women with disabilities in Eugene last summer as guests of Mobility International.  We provided kit-making supplies to one of those women who wanted her sewing group to start making kits when she returned to Kenya, and 150 kits are in the works for a deaf teacher of the deaf in Nigeria.  And we supplied 80 shields plus fabric to girls in Tanzania.

651 beautiful kits all together, plus 80 shields and many dozens of yards of fabric.

Meeting Date Changes

In December, we changed our monthly meeting date from the 3rd Sunday to the 1st Saturday of each month.  So, our next workday is this upcoming Saturday.  I get set up by 10:30, so welcome you to come anytime after that.  It takes me about an hour to pack up, so we're usually out of there between 4:30 and 5:00.  If you're just dropping something off, please don't come at the last minute, as you could find the doors locked!

The only 1st Saturday conflict we saw in 2017 as we selected this new meeting day was in February.  On February 4th, I'm speaking about Days for Girls at the regional conference of Lions Club International.  So, we've rescheduled our second workday of the 2017 to February 11.

Tanzania

As I’ve said before, so many wonderful contacts have been made because one of us happened to have talked about Days for Girls to somebody.

Case in point . . . in September I started with a new doctor as my PCP.  When asked about employment, activities, etc., I told her about Days for Girls.  I had my second appointment with her earlier this month.  She told me that coincidentally, the patient she’d seen just before me runs a school in Tanzania, and was leaving in a few weeks.  I gave her my business card and told her to have that woman contact me if she thought she might be interested in our kits.

Well, that woman was Juliette Reilly (also seeing that doctor for just the second time), and she indeed did contact me.  In 2010, she founded a Pre-K--7 English primary school in a poor, rural community in Tanzania.   In that community, the government primary school is taught in Swahili, but the secondary school is taught in English, so the primary school graduates aren’t prepared to continue their educations.  Juliette’s school is taught in English, and the students are ready for secondary school when they graduate.  You can read about Juliette’s school here.

Because Juliette’s bags were already pretty full, and because she thought the girls would enjoy and benefit from learning to sew, we discussed the alternatives, and decided that our chapter would provide completed shields, plus some fabric to make the bags and liners.

We’ve met over coffee a couple of times, and I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this enjoyable woman.  She’s using her retirement years to change so many young lives!  Juliette told me Saturday that she just got some wonderful news from an old friend.  The friend has offered to match any donations made to Shikabania, to set up an endowment for the school, enabling it to continue once Juliette is gone.

Please read about the school on their website, and if you think this is something you’d like to help with, your donation will be doubled!  Donations can be made via the website.  Or, if you’d like 100% to go to this 501c3 nonprofit (no fees), you can send a check to Juliette Reilly, 241 Rock Creek Road, Drain, OR 97435.  Make the check payable to Shikabania School).  You’ll receive a receipt either way (for a check, it’ll be sent when she returns from Tanzania).

It amazes me how sometimes serendipity seems to know exactly where to strike!