It's A Girl Thing!

Here's the deal:

Girls and women in Africa and countries all over the world do not have access to sanitary products.

Think about that for a moment...

So what do they do during that oh-so-fun time of the month?

They wait.

They stay home from school and work endangering their education and further hindering already impoverished familes.

They squat.

They use a single scrap of old fabric every day and wash it out at night and even though it is still wet they use it again because at least then it is a little bit clean.

They roll up newspaper and use it as make-shift tampons.

They often get infections from using the dirty rags and newspaper and these infections need to be treated with medicine that is not available.

The infections are often mistaken for sexually transmitted diseases and often leads to the women being abused or abandoned by their husbands or family.

Here's a fact: The dropout rate for school-aged girls is 40% when they do not have sanitary supplies. BUT - that rate rises to just 8% when they do have access to them.

All of this could be remedied if they just had access to clean products.

So...

I am teaming up with women all over the country to help provide washable menstrual pads for girls and women in Ethiopia and Zambia, Africa.

Disposable pads and tampons are expensive and pre-made washable overnight pads run about $10 each. We are trying to provide AT LEAST 300 girls/women with 10 washable pads each so if we bought them that would be about $30,000! WOWZA.

Here's where I need you:

No, I don't need you to help me come up with $30,000.

We will not be purchasing pre-made pads.

We'll be sewing them! :)

This Saturday I'm hosting an It's A Girl Thing! party at my church and we will be cutting, assembling, and sewing as many pads as we can. I have a very simple pattern that we'll be using and I am hoping to spend the whole morning cranking out these pads with some dear friends (and hopefully some new friends too!). We will also be praying for the women who will be receiving them.

I need YOU to:

1) PRAY for this gathering - that there will be many hearts and hands that come willing to work and help and that I will be able to have it organized in a way that is efficient (NOT by strong-suit). Also pray that we will have all of the supplies that we need.

2) COME if you are in the metro-Atlanta area and can sew, use a pair of scissors, basically if you can walk and chew gum at the same time there is something that you can do to help! :) We are meeting THIS SATURDAY, Sept. 25 at 9am at Christ Community Church in Conyers. Please bring with you any supplies you would like to donate or let us borrow (sewing machines, scissors, fabric, etc).

3) DONATE toward the purchase of supplies. We will also be providing each girl with 2 pairs of new panties so we will need to purchase those. We need supplies for the actual pads and while a lot of it is being donated by the women that are sewing them, we will still need to purchase additional supplies. In the event that we have money left over after all of the needs have been met the extra will go directly to the ministries that are distributing the pads to women. Those two ministries are Wiphan (located in Atlanta) and Project 61 (Tennessee). If you feel led we would greatly appreciate any donation you would like to make toward this project. You can do so by clicking on the DONATE button on my side bar ------>. Please note that it is for sanitary supplies in the Special Instruction box when you donate.

If you have a chance, please check out both of the ministries with whom we are partnering.

I am super excited about this opportunity to bless women on the other side of the world. It is such a simple thing - a pad - yet it will change their lives.

If you have any questions at all please please please email me or leave me a comment with a way to contact you. Also, if you are planning on coming to the party and/or bringing supplies to donate, please let me know asap so that I know how much more I need to purchase.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and donations. We are blessed TO BE a blessing. Will you be a blessing today?