Pads for Africa

Been wondering if I've got lost in blogger cyberspace!?

Well, not quite but close! The last few months have been totally crazy and not entirely expected! Since I last posted we have got busy with a project called Pads for Africa which had a goal of creating 100 hygiene kits for women in Malawi! Do you know how long it takes two people to sew 1,500 washable pads?!?! Crazy stuff! We have had lots of help cutting thankfully, and a good $3,000 worth of donations at a rough guess! These kits are now (today!) headed off in boxes to Malawi on a container with a bunch of other stuff. Once they arrive they will be distributed to women coming in to give birth in hospital and also to school girls who miss a lot of time each month because they have to stay home. We have also sent two new sewing machines, materials, towelling, haby, snap machines so that the women can continue to make the kits themselves. Anything you do seems like a drop in the ocean in the third world but as someone said to me to today... if we all put a drop in the ocean...

 Some of the many lovely women who helped out with this project! There were many more who cut and cut and cut fabric and towelling!

 We went to buy towelling for sending. I know its going to be inside the pads but surely they'll get more joy with these bright colours!!!

 Ripstop to help prevent leakage...

 What an exciting sight... I never thought we'd get to this day... all 100 kits made up!

 Can you tell I'm excited sewing the last ever pad!?!? Thanks to http://www.lunawolf.co.uk/shop/ for letting us use her pad pattern and send it over to Malawi. We made large and small pads and have it down to a fine art after sewing 1,500!!!!

 All the kits stacked up and ready for boxing!

 I'd love to go to Africa to help out... I was trying to sneak my way into a box!!! (sneaking isn't really my forte though as you can see!) Huge thanks to http://pwmu.org.au/ for donating $1,000 to this cause so we could send materials for the African women to keep making pads! Thanks also to the many people from http://www.donvale.org/ who donated money, material, towels, undies, and time to this cause! Special mention to Jill who sewed and sewed and sewed 12km of thread!!! I hope when I retire I have the zest and go that she has! We're hoping to find a small village to name after her so if you see one please let me know!

 My trusty snapper putting the last ever snap in! A massive shout out to http://www.snapsaustralia.com.au/ for donating a snap machine (now headed for Malawi) and 4,000 snap sets! Such a massive help!

So finally... what's in the kit... a pretty holdall.... 5 small pads... 10 large pads... 3 pairs undies... one PUL washbag (thanks to Amanda Polzin for donating the PUL)... and a laminated gift tag with care instructions on the back!

So... now can you excuse me for not updating my blog for a while!?!? I promise to try to do better... after a little sleep! ;-)) Thanks to hookedonyarn81.blogspot.com.au for the blog award... I feel the love and it's heading right back to her... she's one of the few people who can get deliriously excited with me over yarn and colour!!!