The TAISM Days for Girls team is up and running!

This past two weeks has been crazy busy and I apologise for the delay in getting some of these posts up, it just doesn't appear that the clock is willing to slow down for me ;-) 

On the 18th of October we had the "kick-off" for the new TAISM team. It is a group of TAISM parents / students / and faculty from the school who are donating their time to join the team and make kits. 

 

The faculty sponsors are Cheryl Brown and Keya Lahiri who are helping from the sewing and awareness / donation / fund raising side.  The parent leaders are Amaranta Buendia and myself. 

We had our initial information session on the 18th which was very quickly followed on the 20th with a Bake Sale. The Bake Sale raised 310 rials which was completely mind blowing. We are so grateful to the parents who donated baked goods, and helped sell, and the students that came along to sell the goodies.  We need about 6 rials to complete each kit. 

This past Tuesday was our first "live" session. We were teaching the process of making the Drawstring Bags. I was so happy to see the students enthusiastic and having a great time while tracing, cutting, ironing and sewing.  

Going forward we are proposing to change the timings a little. We will start at 3.45pm (I will be there 3.30pm setting up) until 6pm. That will allow the high schoolers that have to leave on the 5.10pm bus enough time to really get into their tasks. We will finish sewing and clean up at 5.45pm.  We also hope that more ES Moms who are waiting for their children to finish ASA's might be able to join us. 

Upcoming Dates... (These dates are not set in stone as we are trying to work around school commitments please check with us prior)

November 8th  & 29th (was 22nd but it clashed with HS Band)

December 13th (6th is ES Noon Dismissal Rainbow Day)

Winter Break

January 10th & 24th

February 7th & 21st

March 14th & 21st (March 7th Board Meeting in HS Commons)

Spring Break 

In addition to that we are proposing two mornings a month which will most likely be at somebody's house as we are not sure of any available space we could use at the school during the day. Please let Amaranta, Paula Bowlin or myself know if the morning times might suit you better. 

The Days for Girls TAISM team have a goal of 100 kits which will be distributed to the Michelle & Julia Hoffman Memorial Children's Home and the Salem Home in Uganda before the summer break next year.  

While these homes don't have the issues of girls missing school it does mean that by having these kits they don't need to allocate funds for disposable pads and they don't have the problems of waste disposal etc. 

It is heart warming to see our Chapter increasing here in Oman. Ideally we want to get established in the local market, all in good time my friends, all in good time. Stay tuned! 

Revlon LOVE IS ON 2016 Challenge - so close.

Yesterday it was like watching a drawn out horse race. I kept refreshing the Revlon page to see the updates. Days for Girls had fluctuated between 3rd , 2nd and 1st place over the past few weeks but come the last few hours we were bumped out of 2nd place and the Basser Centre and Cancer Research Institute battled it out for the lead position. They were getting $10,000 donations constantly and of course it made it a two way race only. Basser Centre were hanging on until the last few minutes when the Institute did a slam dunk and it was all over.

Days for Girls International raised just over $750,000 plus the 3rd place prize of $75,000, it means worldwide that $825,000 is going to help a lot of girls / women. 

Regardless of the winers of the overall completion I want to reflect on a few things that stand out. Firstly a huge congratulations to our Muscat Oman Days for Girls team donors. You raised  $2213 USD (about 852 Omani Rial). That will allow us to purchase materials for a further 142 kits. This amount included 700 rial of the 790 raised from the Dress Sale. 

Overall from all the charities in the challenge there was a total of $6,542,251 (OMR 2,515,766) raised. Wow,  a great effort. 

Another observation is that Days for Girls has only been around since 2008 and it was up against two HUGE players in the Cancer Research fields who have been around for a very long time. They have some wonderful donors who work tirelessly to raise funds and also some donors with generous deep pockets. I am not sure on the overall statistics yet but I wouldn't be suprised if we have a higher ratio of donors to funds and that speaks volumes for Days for Girls all over the world. 

Let's face it, we would have liked to have won and that $1,000,000 would have had a huge impact but lets just take a moment to look at the other charities. ALL of them are doing amazing work and there certainly is no resentment, just a lot of love knowing this money will make a difference everywhere. 

Thank you again for your kindness and generosity in helping support us through this great experience - the REVLON LOVE IS ON 2016 Challenge. See you next year ;-) 

A VERY Successful Dress Sale!

We are so grateful to Julie Rouse and Jessica Wittmann for arranging another dress sale and I am very pleased to announce that the dress sale raised ...... DRUM ROLL.... 790 rials! (USD $2051). 

That will allow us to make a further 130 kits for girls / women to manage their periods with dignity and health. THANK YOU. 

A LOT of work goes into setting this up. Meeting the sellers and donators, storing dresses, transporting them etc. 

Huge thanks to all the ladies who put in so much hard work getting the venue ready, helping on the day, and cleaning up afterwards. Luisha thank you for once again hosting the sale in your home. 

There are so many people to thank, please know that your efforts ate truly appreciated. All the other volunteers who baked, supplied items, and who helped on the day to make it a very successful day. Thank you for selling and donating dresses and handbags. 

And of course thank you for coming along and buying!

Days for Girls Expeditions

Has volunteering for Days for Girls given you a taste of giving and you can not get enough? Have you ever considered going on an expedition?

I wanted to share with you today the Days for Girls International Expedition link on their main page. They have an upcoming expedition to Nepal , which I believe might already even be filled due to the high demand. The great news is that there will another one in Uganda in the first half of next year and I am very keen to find about that one. You can also fill in their ONLINE FORM to get updates on upcoming expeditions.

Below are some images from the page to give you a little indication of what is involved. Expeditions are self paid and work out around $3000 USD (approx. 1155 OMR)  (plus your flights , visa etc).

It looks like a great opportunity to travel, learn, love and give. 

I am thinking this Christmas I might ask my family for a gift amount towards the cost of an expedition. It seems like a great life experience. 

Thanks for stopping by ....

Dress Sale Tomorrow and Next Volunteer Day

TOMORROW is the dress sale!!! Come along and grab a bargain and help raise funds for Days for Girls. Once you get to the street you will see signs posted. It is the turn that has a sign for the Brazilian Embassy and is basically the opposite end of Al Inshirah Street to the British Council.

Also please mark in your diaries the next volunteer morning on November 6th. Bring a friend, the more the merrier.

Happy Omani Women's Day

Today is Omani Women's Day and I want to give a shout out to the amazing Omani women we have volunteering with us, and to all Omani Women everywhere. 

I recently watched "Rise Up" and heard Michelle Obama saying you can directly see a correlation between a successful country and it's women. So true for Oman. Strong , Beautiful Women who nourish and grow an amazing country!

#We Will Rise - A Must Watch

I have just finished watching the CNN special #We Will Rise and it was magical and inspiring and gave me goosebumps.

There is even a mention about menstrual kits in the beginning with Meryl Streep in Morocco.

As I watched I was working on our DfG drawstring bags and I felt so  humbled to know that this simple act of sewing and helping Days For Girls reach all these amazing women and girls IS making a difference.

So grab a cuppa and watch this lovely piece of journalism. So nice and refreshing when we are constantly being bombarded with political trash, and showbiz nonsense.

I will definitely be showing it to my daughter over the weekend.

https://youtu.be/Fjf4rx3KjYw


And then if you want to hear Michelle Obama talk about the making of the documentary and the girls involved this is a great watch.  The song that opens it finishes at 7 minutes and then Meryl Streep talks and introduces the First Lady.


Take care and thank you for being part of our lovely Days for Girls community.