TODAY IS MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY!

Menstrual Hygiene Day--a great day for us to do something that will bring joy to more girls! 

Pure and simple, this is what Days for Girls is all about. #MenstruationMatters #MHDay2017

Something that has been so ordinary in our lives can make such a tremendous difference in theirs.

In Malawi, girls applauded with gratitude when shown each kit component, but broke into loud cheers along with the applause when shown the underpants.  In Cookie's distribution in Haiti a few weeks ago, undies were also a very big deal!

Let's all do something today that will help bring joy into the girls' lives!

If you want to buy undies for a Menstrual Hygiene Day contribution, a 12-pack of Fruit of the Loom girls briefs (the style we use) has a "rollback" price today of $9.96 (83¢ each) at Walmart.  You can order online and pick up at the store.  BUT, keep in mind that during the summer, the prices will get much better.  These same 12-packs (and also Hanes) often get down to $5.99 (50¢ a pair) for a dozen at Target and Walmart.  If you have a Target card, you get an additional discount.  Target has free shipping for orders over $35.  

But, if you're itching to buy now, even though the prices haven't dropped to their lowest, consider a Target gift card! We'll spend it when we find the lowest prices.

HAPPY MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY !

Enjoy this wonderful video.  It'll make you smile.
And here's a great article to read on Menstrual Hygiene Day.

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY MAY 28, 2017

MENSTRUAL HYGIENE DAY

Every day I do something related to Days for Girls, whether it's sewing, cutting, pinning, shopping, folding,  snapping, blogging, washing/drying/pressing,  prepping/packing for or putting away after a workday, printing, answering emails, making a presentation, or something else.  

There are a few days other than our monthly workdays that make me focus a bit more than usual on Days for Girls and how we hope to improve the lives of young women in some rather tough circumstances.  I try to share those dates with you as they approach or arrive.

International Day of the Girl and Days for Girls' birthday are in the  fall.  August 5th, (happily, the first Saturday in August!!) is National Underwear Day.  Menstrual Hygiene Day is May 28th. That's this Sunday.

Last month I mentioned it, and suggested some things folks could do to contribute that day.  I'll repeat the list here.  

Although it doesn't fall on a first Saturday, let's all challenge ourselves to do something for Days for Girls that day.  Some suggestions are:

~Make a monetary donation--you can give me cash or a check made out to Days for Girls or go online.
~Recruit a friend to work with us
~Recruit a donor (tax receipts available)
~Find a business that'll share a day's revenues with us
~Buy something for our chapter:

• Polyester serger or regular thread in dark colors
• Rotary blades (45mm or 60mm)
• Girls' or women's briefs
• Washcloths (dark colors)
• Flannel--the best quality (more absorbent) you can afford, in darker, stain-hiding prints.  Restrictions: remember, no solids, words, camouflage, weapons, people or animals with faces.
• Cotton for shields--dark, busy, stain-hiding prints. Same restrictions as for flannel.
• Cotton for bags--here's where we use our most beautiful fabric--we want the girls to love their bags and be proud to carry them to school.  Beautiful and not too light in color so they don't easily show dirt.  Many of our recipients live in pretty dusty areas.

~Wash, dry and press some fabric
~Work on steps of constructing components--I'll be happy to give you homework. 

The weekend after May 28 is our June 3 workday, so you can bring me any purchases or completed homework then.

Another idea--Last night I looked at my box of bottles and cans needing to be returned for those dimes.  It's a task I avoid and am thrilled when the high school band or somebody comes by collecting them for a fundraiser.  This morning the light bulb went on!  If all of our supporters redeem their cans and bottles and save the return deposits for us, that'll add up!  So, all of those beverage containers are now in my car and will be pushed through those slots at the "bottle drop" to make a racket while each earning us 10¢.  Maybe you'd like to do the same with yours?

A PLACE FOR A WASHING MACHINE?

Laura has been dying our too-light undies at Stick+Stone, which unfortunately will be closing this summer.  Laura has a washing machine dedicated to dying, and that washer now needs a place to be hooked up so she can continue helping us.  Does anybody have a spot where it can find a new home?

STASH REDUCTION?

I love fabric.  I made clothes in high school and in college made my first quilt, and many more followed it.  For about 20 years, I taught 4th & 5th graders to quilt after school   I have personal fabric.  I have charity project fabric.  I have Days for Girls fabric.  It's sorted into various categories and colors.  Some of it is old, and I still love it.  But occasionally it's so perfect, a piece gets removed from my personal stash and cut up for our kits.

In 1980, I made a quilt for my father and his new bride's wedding gift.  He and my stepmother are both gone now, and the quilt is back with me.  Last week, as I was cutting out shields, one donated brown print fabric kept nagging at me with a connection I couldn't place.  Later that day, there it was, in one of the star blocks on that wedding quilt.  Somebody had given our Days for Girls chapter some perfect (busy print,  dark colors) cotton that was at least 37 years old and I had put that same fabric print in the quilt in 1980.  Maybe  you have some great darker cotton fabrics in your stash that have been there long enough, that would be good for our kits. (See fabric restrictions in smaller font, above.)

If so, and it's big enough, we'll put it in the Accuquilt and cut it into shields, or cut it into bags.  If you have smaller scraps, pockets are made out of 5" x 4.5" pieces.  Pockets are the part of the shield  that typically gets the worst staining, so keep that fact in mind as you debate whether a print would be good for a pocket or not.  We don't use solids.  I really appreciate it if you cut the pocket rectangle, rather than  handing me a box/bag of little scraps.   I typically cut pocket strips that are 5" wide and any length 4.5" or longer.

READ ON

In recent years, we've witnessed such improvements in willingness to write and talk about inequity and barriers related to menstruation.  Just today I read that another state, Florida, has decided menstrual supplies aren't a luxury after all, and is removing the sales tax on them.

And here's something shared by a chapter leader in Maryland:

Janet Schiller with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Delegate Aruna Miller and her staff at the signing of legislation to provide free feminine hygiene supplies to homeless women and girls in shelters and schools.

Janet Schiller with Aruna Miller and Mona Jaffe Rowe in Annapolis, Maryland.

3 hrs · 

About two years ago, I started volunteering for Days for Girls. I first joined the Northern Virginia Team, which I still feel a part of, Several months later, I gave a short speech at a Women of Temple Beth Ami event, and launched the Rockville, Maryland DfG team, which is now entering its second year. Many people are shocked to find out that feminine hygiene is a pervasive problem in developing countries; they are even more shocked to find out that it can still be a problem for women in the US, especially prisons, homeless shelters, and schools. I had a conversation about it with Maryland Delegate Aruna Miller last fall, and yesterday, when Governor Hogan signed House Bill 1067, Maryland enacted legislation making sanitary supplies available free of charge to homeless women and girls in shelters and in schools (incarcerated women were already provided for). I was proud to stand next to Aruna and her staff yesterday at the bill signing. Thank you, Aruna, for your hard work, and thank you, Brian Feldman for introducing us to each other. I'm more analyst than advocate, and I had never done anything like this before. If you had told me a year ago that I could be a successful advocate, I would have shaken my head, and yet I did it. I believe that each of us has the power to make the world a better place, if we just vote, persist, and stand up for what we believe in.

And this from Headquarters (and I love the quote from Bill and Melinda):

Days for Girls is proud to employ 5 full-time staff and 10 seamstresses at our Nepal Center. Each DfG Kit supports a woman or girl by enabling her to go to school or work without interruption for 3 years. DfG Centers go a level beyond that, by allowing women to lift their families and their communities. This is what empowerment looks like. Period. #MenstruationMatters #MHDay2017

I encourage you to click on the links I put on the blog, and then read even more suggestions from those links.  Talk to your friends. It all helps!  

A couple more graphics I like:

Only 2.5% of schoolgirls in South Asia knew that menstrual blood came from the uterus. #mhday2017 #MenstruationMatters

Every girl has a dream. Because each Days for Girls kit lasts for 3 years, a kit allows a girl to dream bigger, make plans, and be the architect of her own future. #MenstruationMatters #WeAreDaysForGirls

WORDS FROM ONE OF OUR RECIPIENTS

I thought you'd enjoy watching this thank you clip from Lillie in Munsieville, South Africa.

3000 DAYS

In this article, Chelsea Clinton speaks out about erasing the stigmas surrounding periods and breastfeeding.

MANPONS

What if it were men who had periods?  Would there still be a luxury tax on tampons?  Would there be any stigma?  Read on . . . .

MENSTRUAL MAN

If you haven't yet had a chance to read about this amazing guy, Arunachalam Muruganantha, one of Time's 2014 100 Most Influential People, here's a link.

NORTH PORTLAND

A newer team to the north of us has made the news with their huge workday this past weekend.  In addition, they had a table at the PDX Red Party on Friday!

A BOUNTY OF DONATIONS

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to join a PEO gathering and tell the group about Days for Girls.  The women had been given copies of our orange wishlist and they delighted and surprised me with many bags of fabric, undies and washcloths!

Then on Friday, I stopped by Our Sewing Room, and Don pointed to a cart piled high with many more kit supplies, sent from our friend and uber-generous supporter Nancy and her friends in Tualatin.  I wish I'd thought to take photos of these mountains of donations before putting them away.

Thanks to you all so much for this very welcome bounty of supplies!  You folks are truly amazing!!

Donations are always SO appreciated!  If you're interested making a cash donation to help with our chapter's expenses, here's an easy way to handle that and immediately receive a receipt for tax purposes.

If you want to buy some items, here's the list of supplies we use:

Days for Girls Eugene Chapter

Donations Wish List

(In order of current need)

Fabric restrictions:  Medium to dark colors in busy, stain-hiding prints, such as florals. Because of cultural considerations, we need to avoid prints depicting weapons, people, animals, insects (butterflies are OK), camouflage, food, religion, words, or holidays.  No solid colors.

Polyester thread in medium and dark colors (Gutermann is a good brand). 

Polyester serger thread—good quality, medium/darker colors.

Quality cotton flannel (see fabric restrictions above).  No white or light colors in the design.  If you have time to wash, dry and press it, that’s greatly appreciated.

PUL (Polyurethane laminate--the moisture-proof layer of the shields)—color doesn’t matter (it won’t show)

Cotton washcloths, as dark/colorful as possible (navy, red, royal blue, brown, etc.). Target has a good price on 8-packs by Room Essentials.  Do not wash. Not microfiber.

Girls cotton underpants, sizes 10, 12, 14 & 16, and women’s sizes, as colorful as possible. The style we use is briefs—please no bikini, hipster or boy shorts styles. Fabric restrictions apply here too. Do not wash.

Rotary cutter blades, 45mm or 60mm

Ziploc brand gallon size freezer bags  (photo of meat on front of box)

Quality cotton fabric, the prettier the better. (see fabric restrictions above). 

Small “hotel” soaps

JUNE WORKDAY

Our workdays are held at Our Sewing Room on the first Saturday of each month.  Our next gathering is June 3.  Come by any time after 10:30.  We're usually packed up and gone between 4:00 and 5:00.  I try to send out reminders to our email list each month, but accurate info will always be here on this blog.  In May, thanks to a computer that took its last breath, I couldn't access our DFG email list, so I apologize for not being able to send a reminder.