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:
~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.
~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.
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.
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.
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
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
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