KITS TO KENYA
You may remember near the end of 2018, we put together 300 kits for girls in Kenya. They were part of a massive West Coast (U.S.A.) effort by Huldah, a Kenya native, now living in the San Diego area. She and her husband traveled up I-5 to Eugene, picking up thousands of kits from West Coast teams and chapters, and more on their way back south. They took four thousand total with them to Kenya in January 2019. I've been hoping for photos, and just discovered a video about this project. I looked hard for some of our bags in the pics showing girls and their kits but didn't spot any familiar fabrics.
I'd love for us to contribute kits to her next Kenyan distribution. If you happen to be flying to the San Diego area and have available free luggage allowance, please let me know if you could take a suitcase of kits to Huldah. Driving, of course, is great too!
OUR NEW TRANSPORT BAGS
In the past, Days for Girls kits have included two gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bags for the girls to use to carry their soiled supplies home to wash, and in areas with a water shortage, as a mini-washing machine. Various countries have banned such plastic bags, out of concern about the environment, and we didn't send them there. This is the last month we'll be including Ziploc bags at all. A couple of years ago, Days for Girls designed what they're calling a Transport Bag made out of PUL, which was a real pain to sew. It's been replaced by a new and better design of the Transport Bag, made out of colorful PUL prints. (PUL is polyurethane laminate, the same fabric we put inside our shields as a moisture barrier.). All kits sent out after February 2020 will be packed with a Transport Bag instead of two Ziplocs.
These new Transport Bags add some expense and labor to our kits. They're a bit tricky to learn to make, since we must heat-seal the edges of the bag to fuse them together, making the bag leakproof. If you have access to a 5mm impulse sealer we can use, please let me know.
Packing a kit with a Transport Bag in lieu of Ziplocs is different (because they're smaller than the Ziplocs). This means presenting the components in a new arrangement. We'll fold the washcloths differently. Only one shield will hold a liner flatly, while the other will have two inserted, and be folded and snapped into what we call a POD (Personal Object of Dignity)--small enough to slip in a pocket. Everything previously included will be there--the only content change is swapping a Transport Bag for the Ziplocs. Oh, and since we no longer have Ziplocs to write the undie size on, we will add a small disposable tag to the grosgrain drawstring of the bag. And then we fold that bag over--as shown in this video--and secure with the colorful drawstring ribbon. I think they look pretty cool. I can just imagine the excitement of girls unpacking these kits--especially those made with the appealing fabrics our chapter uses!
This quick video from founder Celeste Mergens addresses the two kit changes--PODs and size tags.
ZIPLOC SALE
At our March workday, let's have a fundraiser sale of the Ziploc bags we'll no longer be needing for kits. If you use Ziploc freezer bags in your life and would like to replenish your supply while supporting our DFG Chapter, bring your dollars/checkbooks to our workday.
ARE YOU TRAVELING?
In the past few weeks, several people have told me about possibly checking suitcases full of Days for Girls supplies as they travel out of the country. Apparently too many for me to have remembered who's going where without writing them down. Please remind me if you're going to travel! Somebody (but I don't remember who) is going to Guatemala, and I did find an Enterprise there. I did write down the Kenya trip coming up in June, but I learned about that before this busy week. Who/where else? Please email me if you're able to transport some DFG kits or supplies when you travel.
SOME PHOTOS FROM JANUARY
We had big and busy groups in both January and February. These photos are from our January 4 workday. As usual, I apologize to those volunteers I missed. For this month's workday, as usual, I set my phone alarm (the night before) to go off several times during the day to remind me to get some pictures. Sometime in the middle of the day I realized it hadn't sounded. When I looked at the phone, I saw that the battery was dead. So, more apologies, for no February pics.
MARCH WORKDAY
March 7th is almost here! I'll send out reminders a few days before to those of you on our email list. Once you get yours, please let me know if you plan to join us. If you're not on our email list and would like those reminders, please let me know that at dfgeugene@gmail.com.
