My record for blogging each day has been overtaken by a more important cause lately…and I want to share.
During the last big sewing expo I did at the end of September in Novi, MI, God set before me the answer to a direction for which I’d been praying….a way to utilize my sewing and organizational skills to His glory, replacing the crazy schedule of travel and what had become an obsession with developing and selling ‘my brand’. I truly believe that God led me to venture around the corner and to stop at the booth from the Detroit Chapter of Days for Girls.
Fast forward 30 days, and a close friend joined me in volunteering to establish a Jackson, TN (that’s west TN) Days for Girls Team. What is Days for Girls? Why does it matter ?
Why Days for Girls Matters
What if not having sanitary supplies meant DAYS without school? Days of isolation?
Girls use leaves, mattress stuffing, newspaper, corn husks, rocks, anything they can find…but still miss up to 2 months of education and opportunity every year because they don’t have a way to discreetly and healthily manage their monthly cycles. It turns out this issue is a surprising but instrumental key to social change for women all over the world. Using our sewing skills and sewing supplies (too often stashed and un-used), Kits are stitched and assembled that change lives. Each Kit lasts an average of 3 years and a value of $12-$15 plus the loving labor to create them. Two Shields that snap onto the 2 panties hold trifold double layer flannel Liners (8 included), a washcloth, soap, a gallon freezer quality ziploc bag for storage until laundering, and instructions for use are all discreetly packaged in a colorful drawstring bag along with education.
The goal of Days for Girls is:
Everywhere. Every Girl. Period.
by 2022
To create our first 50 Kits that will be delivered to a village in Gamasara, Tansania in Africa, 25+ hours on the part of approximately 50 different women age 10 and up have been invested, and it’s been FUN! I’m proud to share that my sewing technical knowledge generated a new and quicker way of stitching the Shields, the most challenging part. The Detroit Chapter reports that this new technique has cut their time in half.
Today, my dear hubby even sat behind a serger, learned to rotary cut, and pressed in addition to manning the washing and drying and folding of yards and yards of flannel. To say that this has overtaken our home and my heart is an understatement, but Oh, so much more rewarding than loading the van to go set up a booth!
Blogging will gear up once again, informative and promotional newsletters to my website subscribers will continue, creative sewing to share will be enjoyed, occasional travel and teaching will happen. Even Retreats for those wishing to learn my way of sewing creatively will be offered here at my TN Sunroom Sewing Studio. BUT, my heart and every spare, miscellaneous minute will be spent on Days for Girls, covered with my prayers for the girls’ lives they will change as I stitch.
Sew…. now you know what has set my heart on fire. My hope and prayer is that ‘Days for Girls’ might grab your heart as well.
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