Yesterday in my blog reading, I found out about a charity/almsgiving opportunity that I am really really really excited about.
The ideal set up for me would be to be able to do something charity/almsgivingwise out of my own home, with my sewing machine. I am responisble for taking care of and homeschooling my kids, and I have the added dubious joy of having less physical energy than many people and a bad back.
So, given all these restrictions, I've thought it would be nice to do something with my sewing skills.
For a while, I was hoping to do some sewing for some school kids in Swaziland, working with a friend who visited Swaziland last winter, but that has not panned out.
Yesterday, I learned about Goods4Girls.
I'm so excited about this organization that it gives me chills.
Imagine being a very poor young girl in an African country. Perhaps you are an Aids orphan, or just very very poor. What if you have an opportunity to go to primary school? That would be nice, wouldn't it? What happens when you start your period and you have no sanitary supplies? Do you stay home a miss your exams? Do you use something very dirty and get a horrible vaginal infection? Do you risk social embarrassment by trying to rig up some leaves or something and then bleed all over the place? Do you take your male classmate up on his offer to buy you some pads in exchange for sex? (I was reading on the goods4girls website that transactional sex is common in very poverty stricken areas where the only collateral girls or women have is their bodies.)
etc.
Goods4Girls provides a cloth, reusable sanitary kit for a girl's mentrual needs. Distributing them in primary schools also gives an opportunity to educate young women about their menstruation, about sex and AIDS and other STDs. Goods4girls takes cash donations, one can donate by purchasing a kit from sellers of cloth mentrual products, such as Gladrags, or one can sew menstrual pads according to numerous available patterns and send them to Goods4Girls in Seattle, WA, who will distribute them via aid organizations to girls in Africa.
Like I said, this give me chills. It's just so basic. And so simple and easy. God have mercy! Jesus said: "Whatsoever you have done unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." If a girl in Africa is not "the least of these" I surely don't know who is.
The ideal set up for me would be to be able to do something charity/almsgivingwise out of my own home, with my sewing machine. I am responisble for taking care of and homeschooling my kids, and I have the added dubious joy of having less physical energy than many people and a bad back.
So, given all these restrictions, I've thought it would be nice to do something with my sewing skills.
For a while, I was hoping to do some sewing for some school kids in Swaziland, working with a friend who visited Swaziland last winter, but that has not panned out.
Yesterday, I learned about Goods4Girls.
I'm so excited about this organization that it gives me chills.
Imagine being a very poor young girl in an African country. Perhaps you are an Aids orphan, or just very very poor. What if you have an opportunity to go to primary school? That would be nice, wouldn't it? What happens when you start your period and you have no sanitary supplies? Do you stay home a miss your exams? Do you use something very dirty and get a horrible vaginal infection? Do you risk social embarrassment by trying to rig up some leaves or something and then bleed all over the place? Do you take your male classmate up on his offer to buy you some pads in exchange for sex? (I was reading on the goods4girls website that transactional sex is common in very poverty stricken areas where the only collateral girls or women have is their bodies.)
etc.
Goods4Girls provides a cloth, reusable sanitary kit for a girl's mentrual needs. Distributing them in primary schools also gives an opportunity to educate young women about their menstruation, about sex and AIDS and other STDs. Goods4girls takes cash donations, one can donate by purchasing a kit from sellers of cloth mentrual products, such as Gladrags, or one can sew menstrual pads according to numerous available patterns and send them to Goods4Girls in Seattle, WA, who will distribute them via aid organizations to girls in Africa.
Like I said, this give me chills. It's just so basic. And so simple and easy. God have mercy! Jesus said: "Whatsoever you have done unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." If a girl in Africa is not "the least of these" I surely don't know who is.
Comments
Love, Joi
Which option are you going to go for? Sew some from patterns? I saw some patterns on the Hillbilly Housewife.
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/sanitarypads.htm#eww
~Anna