Sewing the Serged Liner

For our sewing volunteers, here is a video on how the liners are made. If you are able to come to our Sew / No Sew volunteer morning in April (date to be advised later) please if you can watch this before hand that would be wonderful. I will have two overlockers / sergers  at the morning. Can someone please let me know if they are confident on the serger. It is important that we sew to the DfG guidelines to ensure consistency.

Many thanks

Sewing the Days for Girls Shield

For our sewing volunteers, here is a video on how the shields are made. If you are able to come to our Sew / No Sew volunteer morning in April (date to be advised later) please if you can watch this before hand that would be wonderful. It is important that we sew to the DfG guidelines to ensure consistency.

Many thanks

Celeste Mergens - CEO and Found of Days for Girls

How it all began ...

I had the remarkable opportunity opportunity to meet with Celeste at the Ambassador for Womens Health training in Dhaka last month. She is an amazing lady who is inspiring, down to earth and totally loveable. I spent a couple of days with her in the training, at a function and visiting an orphanage and I was able to learn so much from her. 

Can you imagine 1400 children in one orphanage!  Can you imagine spending 5 days sitting in your room on a piece of cardboard simply because you have your period? Can you imagine being "exploited" just so you can go get some food and water? Can you imagine using a corn husk, or leaves instead of a soft pad?

I can not imagine, but I can do something to help these girls.  It is so wonderful to be part of something that is making a difference. 

Every Girl. Everywhere. Period.

Over the past week I have had many people get so excited about Days for Girls and ask how they can help. Then the next thing they say is "But I can't sew". 

My reply is "Great! Because we have so many other jobs for those who don't sew". 

Below you will see a list of possible tasks you can volunteer for with our group. It is going to be a lot of fun working together. We are in the process of working out times and dates to start up sewing and non sewing meet ups which will commence after the Spring Vacation break is over. 

Thanks for checking in with us ... 

Our No Sew Jobs

Our Sew Jobs

Every Girl. Everywhere. Period. 

Supply Donation Opportunities

It takes a village ... it sure does. For us to make and get our kits out it will take the efforts, hard work  and kindness of many.

Listed below are some of the supply donation opportunities for Days for Girls Muscat.

Probably the hardest item for us to get is flannel, which ironically is what we will use the most (remember no children's prints, camouflage, animal or insect prints). We are able to purchase it in the US but shipping is costly. I recently purchased 10 yards of flannel in Bangladesh and packed it in my luggage. It's total weight was 4.4lbs / 2kg. If you are traveling to the US and have some room in your luggage to bring back fabric then we can purchase it online and send it to your US address.  If you put it in a plastic bag and suck the air out its pretty compact too. 

Attached below is a copy of the flyer that is linked above. 

To donate or if you have any queries please contact me on the daysforgirlsmuscatoman@gmail.com email. 

Many thanks for your support.
Every Girl. Everywhere. Period.

Days for Girls Muscat Oman. Ready, Set, GO!

March has been a great month with the inception of Days for Girls Muscat Oman. We are a group of volunteers working towards a common goal ... keeping girls in school by providing sustainable feminine hygiene. 

Days for Girls International was founded in 2008 by Celeste Mergens who had been working at an orphanage in Kenya and was desperately trying to get endless supplies needed for the orphanage. Back in the US in the early hours one morning a thought struck her and she sent an email asking "what do the girls use for their periods", the reply came immediately ... "nothing, most stay in their rooms and sit on cardboard". From that first email came the start of a very nobel and worthwhile cause - Days for Girls. 

In late February I was googling ideas on how to use up some excess PUL fabric I had from previously sewing cloth diapers. One page lead to another and suddenly I was on the Days for Girls website. I read through it over and over again, watched the videos, read the blogs, and looked at various Facebook pages.  I immediately I knew that this was I wanted to do so I decided I would sew cloth menstrual pads and send them to Days for Girls. I took the online Ambassador Training course so that I could learn more about the organisation and the end consumer and everything in-between.

As fate would have it the next day I received an email reminding people that Celeste Mergens would be in Dhaka, Bangladesh running the Ambassador training on March 5th. I knew I wanted to go and meet her and do the training,  I couldn't really explain why given that I had already done the program on-line but there was a little voice in my head and I couldn't ignore it.  A mad dash to get a visa and arrange things at home here in Oman and suddenly I was seated on the plane ready for Dhaka.  Those three days in Bangladesh were a life changer for me. I met Celeste and other wonderful amazing women from Days for Girls Australia (Evelyn, Vicki, Barbara), US (Deborah), and Bangladesh (Shylla) and their energy and passion was so motivating and inspiring that I knew I could do more. I had the opportunity to meet with locals, visit an orphanage and talk with girls who had been using the hygiene kits for over a year  and I heard stories of how it had changed their lives and those around them. 

I returned to Muscat and started to speak to as many as people as possible about my trip and Days for Girls. I wanted to enlist volunteers to help sew, donate supplies and promote the cause.  I sewed up my first kit so that I could show others what it was all about. 

Here we are, less than a month later and we are already organising our first DFG Sew / Non-Sew meet up, a few coffee presentations and just a few days ago I was so thrilled to receive a message from a friend who had pledged to donate 1000 travel soaps!!! 

Our aim is to have several sewing groups all over Muscat working on components of the kit and then we will all come together to assemble the kits. There is a specific way the kits must be made to ensure they meet the Days for Girls worldwide standard. All those who will be sewing will be part of the start up group for training which will take place mid to late April after the Spring Break holidays. This blog has been created because not everyone is on Facebook and this will be a great place to post about our upcoming events. 

Please join us on this wonderful journey, I know we will have a lot of fun along the way. xxx

Clodagh Cahill

Days for Girls Muscat Oman 

daysforgirlsmuscatoman@gmail.com

Follow Us on Facebook 

Here is an article from O Magazine