To sum up her post, the organization Wiphan is helping rescue hundreds of young women out of the Korah Dump in Ethiopia and putting them through school now. However, one thing that hinders young women from staying in school and just having a normal life is feminine care. The stats are that 40% girls drop out when they have no sanitary supplies but when those things are provided the drop out rate is only 8%!
Also since they don't have any good sanitary supplies they use old newspapers to wad up and use as tampons and other soiled linens, which then gives them infections. Unfortunately these infections they get make their families or for the older women, their husbands, believe they are unfaithful and have an STD.
Their plan is to provide EVERY girl going to school from Korah and every girl and widow at Wiphan, 10 washable pads each + 3 pairs of underwear. This is where we come in...
I've been praying for opportunities like this and I really feel we could be used by the Lord to help these women! We can get together and have fellowship and get these pads and "envelopes" (pad holders) sewn and put together and then I will ship them out to my friend who will then ship them with her team over to Ethiopia this fall or winter! This gives us a chance to be His hands and feet for Ethiopia from our home town!
Some of you who don't live near me might be wondering how you can help since you will not be able to get together with us and I know some of you might feel led to help too but cant make it to the actual time we get together and in that case we could really use any $ donations or donations of materials or if you want to make some on your own and send them to me!
I will try and keep this short but I have SO MUCH MORE information to give you!
I talked with Tina, our pastor's wife, for those of you who don't go to church with me, and we are planning on trying to do the first day of them on September 17th at 10am in the morning during our church's pre-women of faith conference fun that they are doing at our church before the ladies leave to go to Cleveland for the Women of Faith Conference that night. (You do not have to do anything else that day if you are not signed up for other activities or if you don't go to our church, you can just come for this and leave when we are done) We thought we could possibly start cutting out all the patterns and getting things ready that day and then pick another day to come together and have more time to finish up and sew them all!
IF YOU ARE NOT A SEWER...it's totally fine, I am not either but we need you because you can help me in bringing whatever supplies you have around the house or want to buy and to help me cut out the patterns for the sewers to sew!
HERE IS WHERE I NEED YOU: If you are at all interested in either donated materials etc or coming to the actual time we are getting together to help make these, PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP and I will get even more information out to you!
TO READ ANDREWS FULL POST ON THIS GO HERE
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING US, PLEASE READ ON TO READ ON WHAT MATERIALS WE NEED AND HOW THE PADS WILL LOOK!
As far as material goes - the great thing with these pads is that you can make them out of SO many different materials and they work great! So, here is what they have done:
Option 1: No waterproof layer. Made 'envelope' completely out of soft, thick flannel (like a flannel shirt or bed sheet material, but could also be a thinner cotton), made 'insert' out of two layers of same flannel with cotton batting, or old terry towels cut in strips sandwiched in between (has to be cotton - poly batting will NOT absorb)
Option 2: Waterproof layer. Made bottom layer of 'envelope' out of PUL (polyurethane laminate, available at most fabric stores) and cotton print for the top and the two little end 'envelope' pieces. Insert same as above.
They have also made the inserts out of 3-6 layers of flannel serged or zigzagged on all edges. Flannel or diaper flannel is by far the best choice for the insert pads as it is so soft against the skin and absorbent.
Touch tape (Velcro) and snaps both seem to be performing well for fasteners.
They have been trying to choose bright cheerful prints that will make these girls/woman smile! But, they are also using up a bunch of random fabric they have on hand and some of it is just solid colors, or white. They have been avoiding white as much as possible for both the envelopes and pads, because white will show stains more.
How much fabric per pad. A yard of PUL seems to be making around 30 pads, as long as you just use it for the bottom layer of the envelope and use a cotton print for the top layer. So they would think a yard of PUL, plus a yard of cotton would make close to 30 'envelopes' For the pads, you can get TONS of them with just a couple yards of flannel, if you use cotton batting or old towels for the middle layer.
From start to finish, once they made a few, it took 20 minutes to make one pad - If you have access to a serger, it is SO fast as you can skip a bunch of the steps and just serge all the layers together and not have to turn and top-stitch. (That may not make sense, but will once you make one, I think!!!)
I HAVE THE PATTERN SO PLEASE EMAIL ME AT APRILCSTARKEY@GMAIL.COM IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO SEND YOU AN ATTACHMENT OF THE PATTERN!
In His amazing grip,
I worked on some of these recently... They seem like they would work really well! But after some thought, I decided to try and come up with a way to make something similar, but with even LESS material. I spent a couple hours on some different prototypes, and I think I have a really good one. We are going to bring some to Uganda next month and have some of the women try them out... Hopefully it will go well. They are very easy to make!
ReplyDeleteOh, and for making the ones you posted, I've found that buying a plastic bed sheet, like on Amazon, to use for a waterproof layer was MUCH cheaper than buying something similar from a fabric store. I think I bought a King size one for like $9... And for that much material in the fabric store it was going to cost me close to $17/18.... Plus, the plastic is alot more durable. I've seen how they do wash in Uganda, and things don't wear as well the way they wash by hand. Having a plastic layer in there helps hold it together too.
Good luck with your sewing day! I'm going to have one with my pre-pubescent niece, to kind of 'introduce' her to ladyhood, haha. My sister-in-law thought it would be a good learning experience for her, and she's a great sewer.
Enjoy your day! And thanks for getting something together like this! I wish I had more people around me that like to sew!
Wow, this is an amazing project. My hat's off to you! I'll see if there's anything local happening to this end. Thank you for sharing!!
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