A MUST-SEE VIDEO
The very active leader of a Days for Girls Chapter in Florida has made a great video of her involvement and history with DfG. I hope ALL of you can set aside some time to watch it--it's long, but wonderful, and may answer some questions you didn't even know you had!
I've had email correspondence with Radha. She was the one who found a contact for us when we had an offer of kit transport to Peru.
She talks about the work/storage room they have being sponsored by earmarked donations. With use of Our Sewing Room, we may have the best meeting/workspace of any team or chapter. Since last year, being able to rent the rooms at the back has made such a difference. I paid for the first year's rent ($500 a month), and an anonymous donor has come up with rent money for our second year. We don't take rent money out of our regular donations.
If you know a person, business or service club interested in earmarking funds for our rent for any period of time, please let me know. We can, of course, provide a receipt for the tax-deductible donation.
It's fun to see a full kit another team or chapter has produced. Three differences I noticed with Radha's kit and the ones we produce: the way they roll the washcloth, where they put the label on the bag, and the undies with the white background--which we would have dyed.
Another thing Radha mentions is that on average, a woman produces 300 pounds of trash in her life, just on menstrual products. Wow--I don't even want to do the math to consider that impact!
QUESTIONABLE QUALITY
I've written before about quality control. I think every team or chapter must struggle with this at some point. There is no Returns Department for the girls/women to take their components back to if they don't hold up. We want every single item we make to be perfect, so the recipient gets the maximum life out of the whole kit.
Our biggest area for rejects is the liners, the component we need the most of. The issue seems to be the serger machines, not the serger operators. If your serger has messed up tension or other problems keeping it from doing its best, please address that before making dozens or hundreds of liners. And, please remember to overlap your perimeter serging at least an inch! We're getting lots that don't even have 1/2" of overlap. If you have questions/concerns, please talk to me at our next workday. I can show you in person what we'd like our serging to look like, but here's a photo. (Note--what at first glance looks like loops off the edge of the liners is actually shadows.)
One of the other chapter leaders has created an inventory sheet, and I was shocked to see on her screen shot the high numbers she had in the columns for substandard liners, substandard shields, and substandard bags. Sometimes another person can fix the problem (which of course means more time she could be using to make new components correctly the first time), but usually it means they get set aside in case we have an opportunity to send kits to women in areas where there's been a natural disaster. The thinking behind this is that the lower-quality supplies won't be needed for the full 3+ years we expect a normal kit to last. But our choice is always to be able to provide as many perfect kits as possible. Let's keep those girls in school!
BETHEL SCHOOL DISTRICT
I reported last month about the free pads/tampons now available in Eugene 4J schools. I see that the Bethel School District has also committed to having menstrual supplies available in school bathrooms at all elementary, middle and high schools!
JANUARY 4
Please join us for our first workday of 2020. It's the first Saturday of the month at Our Sewing Room. We're there 10:00-4:00. We have a range of tasks available--you can do what you're best at.
