The Waurn Ponds Days for Girls chapter meets on a Wednesday fortnightly in the hall to sew reusable Femine Hygiene Products for women and girls for whom menstruation can be a barrier to participation in education and community life. St Luke’s hosts them at no cost as part of our mission to the community. Here’s an update from Deb, their co-ordinator:
“The kits our Team made this year and were picked up by World Vision Canada went to Burundi, Africa. This is a land locked country in the great Rift Valley bordering Rwanda. I have a soft spot for for African countries as we spent 3 1/2 months travelling through parts of Africa in a Landrover Defender some 7 years ago now and although we did not travel to Burundi we did part of the Rift Valley so we were very close. (Only a centimeter or two on the map)!! I am thrilled to think that our kits will be distributed there.
2021 has been another year that has had many challenges for so many of us, but we have still achieved some amazing things. A quick summary of the year for DfGAL
- Two new teams – Boort Vic, and Riverbend Qld
- One new team in training, Bendigo Vic
- Kits sent into the world for financial year 2020/2021 – 33,089 to 23 countries
- Kits sent into world since 1 July 2021 until now – 23,332 to 14 countries this includes 17,075 to World Vision Canada for Burundi
- Thanks to Ann Gobby we now have access to beautiful underwear and colourful PUL
- Thanks to Lee Baker and the Camberwell Team, we can now have access to cut PUL for shields and carry pouches.
- Regional Briefings in Queensland (Townsville, Allora, Brisbane) and Victoria (Gippsland and Mildura)
We are also helping to establish teams in the island nations around us, Baucau in Timor-Leste (nearly Gold Certified), West Timor (Gold Certified just this month), Solomon Islands, Kiribati these teams will join our FijiWest Team. A big thank you to all the teams in these countries and a thank to all our Teams who are helping to mentor these Teams.
Our success is all thanks to all our amazing volunteers across the country and the world. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for what you do and also I want to thank all our amazing State Coordinators, State Sewing Specialists, our Board Members and other key volunteers who have stepped up to help us with our finances, child protection, training, resources, social media, communications, and our Liaison Officer who help us manage our distributions in PNG & Timor-Leste.
Our workshops for 2022 will resume on Wednesday January 19th, followed by February 2nd and 16th. I will let you know of further dates once they are finalized. I will be at the January workshop and will then be away for the next three, back mid March. During that time Deb Chapman will be organizing the Workshops.”
If you would like to join the team in 2022, contact Deb via email: geelongwaurnpondsvic@daysforgirls.org
