This Sunday - See you There

This Sunday is Volunteer Morning! We will be sorting and rolling panties, snapping shields, cutting / burning and pairing ribbon, cutting drawstring bag cuts, cutting cotton for the die cutter for shields. 

And on the sewing side the serging ladies are training our new recruits and hopefully we have a nice drawstring bag corner again. 

Lots to discuss and brainstorm too. See you all, bring a friend, remind a friend ;-)

Prep Day tomorrow cancelled

Tomorrow's planned PREP DAY is cancelled Ladies, so sorry. This Sunday at the volunteer day we will focus again on loads of prep and cutting to get sew-at-home kits ready.

Flannel from India ... possible lead and wonderful initiative

Last night Nalini shared some information with me about a group in India who are making washable pads that use flannel so we are trying to see if we can find out where they buy it from. 

I came across this video that talks about the group and it was so wonderful to see this initiative.

If you have family or friends in India who wondered where they might get cloth pads from then please pass on these details to them ... oh and I love that they have sew your own kits too!

ECO FEMME SHOP

If anyone happens to know someone involved in this project please let us know.

WANTED - A Fearless Serging / Overlocking DfG Warrior

Ladies as you know we welcomed Ollie and Sergio into the family recently and Nalini is getting her learners permit for one and will whipping up beautiful liners in no time. Miriam will be joining her on her own machine as did Helen recently. So now we are looking for one more lady who could join the team.

An overlocker / serger will be on loan to you and all the materials provided if you have some spare time to sew at home. This is probably suited to someone that has a little sewing experience but no need to be a PRO ;-) Lessons will be conducted at this SUNDAY's volunteer day. Let me know if you are interested so we can discuss.

Great Resources coming out from India

I love what this group is doing to educate girls / women in India on menstruation and allow them to rejoice and not feel ashamed. Menstrupedia was founded by Aditi Gupta, Tuhin Paul, and Rajat Mittal. Lots of resources there to share too.

https://www.menstrupedia.com

A great little article about them is here from BetterIndia.com .

This video too originates in India and has a powerful message in such a short video.

I like bookmarking good resources so that I know where to look when I am chatting to a Mum, Aunty etc who asks about how to share information about menstruation with their girls. 

Happy Sunday folks ;-) 

The Week in Review

There is always so much happening every week that it is hard to keep up with how fast our chapter is moving and growing! 

Firstly, I would like to thank Tace for arranging a talk at the British School Muscat this past Thursday with the grade 10, 11, and 12 girls. We showcased Days for Girls and got them thinking about how lucky we are and also about some ways that they could help Days for Girls.

We will be represented at their International Day on April 5th where we hope to raise awareness and encourage participation.  I may need to source one or two people to assist with this booth as it falls during my children's Spring Break holidays and I might be away.  The session was over so soon that I forgot to take a picture, very sorry. 

We welcomed two new additions to our DfG family and  thank you to Anu at Abu Janan who gave us a wonderful discount.   Please meet SERGIO and OLLIE our two new sergers / overlockers. Nalini is earmarked to be trained up on one and the other will be loaned out to another volunteer to help us serge the liners.  MAGGIE and SALLY will be happy to have some company ;-) 

The big event of the week was the KIT PACKING finale at TAISM on Sunday 19th which was well attended, and I think we all felt such a sense of pride (and relief) to see those 100 kits for Uganda come together.  I really want to thank Cheryl and Keya for being the faculty sponsors and for pushing this project along. Amaranta was there to get us up and going and helping co-ordiante lots of goodies for the Bake Sales and to all the students who came and helped us iron, cut, fold, pack and sew and SELL lots of cakes too - you are all rockstars!!  Eglee and her amazing Latino sewing group who just kept pumping out drawstring bags for us, you ladies did it in style! And to the lovely Paula who serged until she could serge no more literally because we ran out fabric for her!), achieving no less than 645 liners - AMAZING!! Paula also arranged for ladies to sew at her house so we would have enough bags and also get the prep work done. Thank you to Frannie, Jamie, Ericka, Jennifer, Monica, Megan, Paige, Teresa, Lisa, Bridget and Rebecca, you all made such a difference.  A very big thank you to Mr Schaffer the Director at TAISM who supported us from the very beginning and who generously donated money, raised from last year's ball, so we can buy more flannel! 

At then end of the week we bit the bullet and made a large order of flannel so that we have enough to make all the components for the kits going off to Lebanon in May. It was very hard to press that SEND button and know that we were going to be paying so much for shipping but sadly this isn't the time of year when folks are traveling to the US as the break / holiday is too short.  Stay tuned ladies because in a couple of weeks there will be 176 yards of flannel to WASH and IRON!!!! 

NEXT WEEK ... on Wednesday 29th 9am - 12.30pm we will have a prep day at DfG HQ (a.k.a. my house, lol). We intend to cut shields, cut bags, and if I have anyone game enough also to DYE some underwear.

Coming up is the 10th Volunteer morning on April 2nd. We will be focusing on teaching our newbie serging ladies how to perfect the liners and also follow up with the newbie drawstring bag ladies from last volunteer day. There will be underwear to fold (yes those 700 pairs need rolling ladies) , snaps to be applied, sew@home kits to be packed, ribbon to be cut and ends singed, and fabric to be cut for bags. So as you can see plenty of jobs for sewing and non-sewing volunteers alike.  

Thanks for making it this far!  I hope you all have a great week. 

Can we talk washcloths please?

A week of WASHCLOTHS! I am hoping that washcloths might be on your minds this week. We will still need about 200 quality washcloths to be donated for the Lebanon / Syrian Refugee bound kits.

We currently have quite a lot of thin ones that have pulled threads all over and are bit scratchy. Our intention is to keep these and donate them to a charity here who might put together kits for workers etc. For the DfG kits we would like cloths that are little thicker and softer, after all doesn't everyone want a little luxury when washing down there ;-)

 

If you see a great bargain on nice quality but not too expensive washcloths please let us know. (Preferably not white). 

I am attaching a sample picture of the types we have currently to show you the difference in the "pile". You ladies ROCK, see you all on the 2nd I hope.

Shipping Brainstorming - Please Help

I am a true believer of brainstorming and sharing ideas to fix our problems. Please if you could take a few minutes to read the attached file about shipping. I just know there is someone in our community that can help. 

Many thanks 

An order to fill ...

Just a quick update on what we need to sew in order to finish the Lebanon items ... 918 Regular Liners, 800 Heavy Flow Liners, 259 regular shields, and 200 Heavy Flow shields. Shields we need to get cut on the die cutter, ASAP. Liners we need to order about 30 bolts of fabric from the USA. It's crunch time ladies 

Update on our Panty Drive

A very big thank you to everyone who donated panties during our February Panty Drive. 

We collected over 200 pieces from our Muscat members and friends!! 

And the complete "knock-me-over-with-a-feather" surprise was that an anonymous donor kindly gifted us 700 pairs of Ladies Fruit of the Loom women's briefs via Days for Girls HQ and had them sent here! I was so speechless when I got the email. 

The funny thing was this week when the panties arrived and I went to collect the boxes from the central post office. Naturally they thought I was going to sell them here because really what does one woman need with 700 pairs of knickers for personal use ;-) 

It took me a little time and explaining in my very poor broken arabic that these were for kits that would be sent to refugees in Lebanon. The two poor fellas looked very confused. So I started to explain the kits are for periods, menstruation ... well they couldn't get me out of the post office fast enough and NO EXTRA duty was levied, WIN! 

Kit Packing for Uganda - TAISM Team

To any of our TAISM team members please note that our Uganda Kit Packing event is tomorrow.  See you there ;-) 

Are you sewing at home? Stocktake please.

STOCKTAKE!!! Hi Ladies, I am doing a stocktake so I can order flannel, and check our supply of cotton for shields and bags to get us over the finish line with our Lebanon distribution.

PLEASE if you have BAGS or SHIELDS you are sewing at home can you let me know how many you have. (I've already contacted the liner ladies directly). Many thanks.

Drawstring Bag Sewing Tip

Here is a video to help you with the top of the bag.

Please remember to back stitch a few times to make sure the bag is very secure at the bottom of the "V".

Many thanks sewers!

We are having technical difficulties with this post. If you need this video please contact muscatoman@daysforgirls.org 

Next Volunteer Morning Sunday 2nd April

Join us in Sunday 2nd April for our next volunteer morning ... sewing and non sewing jobs available. 

Sewing Class this Thursday and Abu Janan Sewing Shop

A few more things ...

1. We have one space left for a Drawstring Bag Sewing Lesson THIS Thursday morning here in Atheiba. Please contact me if you are interested. 

2. A few Ladies were asking today about a good place to purchase a machine or have their machine serviced. We use Abu Janan in Seeb. I am attaching the previous post link so you know where he is. Generally a service takes 1 -2 days and costs between 4 - 6 rial. 

I think best machine on the market for under 50 rial is the Janome Cherry. We get it for 48 rial. It has a needle threader and Hard Case, not easy to find in the price bracket. 

http://daysforgirlsmuscatoman.blogspot.com/…/sewing-machine…

Google Maps , I put Abu Janan on there so it is easy for you all to find. 

https://www.google.com/…/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x897a…

March 2017 Volunteer Morning

Today was our 9th Volunteer Morning and it was a cracker! We had 15 new ladies come along and the room was pumping with activity. 

We focused on "prep" work today getting bags cut, pockets cut and sewn, and shields through the die cutter. We also had a very energetic "Learn to Sew the Bag" corner and a big thanks to Lise, Lisa and Sakina for teaching their groups. Liner ladies were also busy getting flannel cut and ready for serging. 

Jess and her big team of ladies got all those panties sorted and rolled while Sylvia was teaching some new ladies how to apply snaps to the shields. Rocking great morning!!! 

We also had a donation of 100 rial from a silent donor (THANK YOU - we will purchase a machine and some cutting mats) and Lulu was very busy selling off the rest of the small crafts. We look forward to seeing you again in April.

International Day - Awareness and Bake Sale

International Day was amazing as usual. Thank you to those wonderful people who donated baked goods for the Days for Girls Bake Sale run by the TAISM community service team. Keya and her fantastic bunch of students did a brilliant job selling all the lovely goodies. And a special thanks to Jay who was a super seller on the Days for Girls table. 

The Bake Sale raised 150.600 rial, all of which will go directly into making more Washable Sanitary Kits.