Are you familiar with Days for Girls? This inspiring organization provides sustainable hygiene kits for girls and women in underdeveloped countries, allowing them to attend school and work during their menstrual cycle - days that would have been lost or missed for them.
Days for Girls
While attending the Missouri Star Quilt Company Birthday Bash last week, I got the chance to meet, sit down and sew with a bunch of delightful volunteers for this particular organization. MSQC had selected them as the volunteer charity sew-along partner for their Birthday Bash event.
I've always been impressed with this program; and I highlighted their cause in my Share Goodness list of opportunities for charitable sewing.
Well, I was equally impressed with the organized and enthusiastic volunteers that had traveled from multiple surrounding states to set up and provide a meaningful, well-organized service opportunity over 3 days for the hundreds of Birthday Bash attendees. These women had the goal of making and assembling 1,000 kits at the three day event and as of the start of day 3, they were up to 800!
This is Paula- she is a volunteer chapter director for Days for Girls in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was so gracious to let me put her on the spot and interview her about Days for Girls, what the volunteers do, and what the contents of the distributed kits contain and look like.
I've put together a little video of Paula's interview + a little more about Days for Girls here.
If you would like to get involved the opportunities are many. And don't worry! You don't have to start from scratch. The Days for Girls operation is highly organized and can give you specifics of ways you can get involved.
Check out the Days for Girls website for lots of inspiration and information. If you don't know where to start, I highly recommend finding a local chapter and starting there.
If time is not your excess resource right now, monetary donations are equally helpful.
Days for Girls also accepts fabric donations. Please contact your local chapter for more information on what is needed and how to donate.
All of the women that I met were so impressive and generous. It's a wonderful group to be a part of, and even more important, a cause that is life-changing for the girls that it helps!
What are some of your favorite charitable organizations? Share in a comment below!
Reba Winsinger
Thank you for highlighting DfG! I've been sewing for them for 4 years now and just love the opportunity to bless women around the world. We always love adding quilters to our ranks of sewing as they know what a scant 1/4 inch seam is and have a love of beautiful fabrics.
Love your blog!
katechiconi
I sew for Days for Girls here in Australia. Our local chapter mainly sends kits to the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. I am also making a hand-stitched hexie quilt using the small scraps left over from cutting out the shields, the perfect size! When it's finished, we will raffle it to raise funds for fabrics and notions to supplement the donations we receive. I'm so glad you're giving DfG such a great publicity boost!
Lorraine Barnett
Oh, Amy, this makes me so happy to see! I would have LOVED to be there! I sew for Days for Girls and this year was able to help send about 150 kits to my own spiritual sisters in Africa and the Philippines, to congregations there. The kits are happy and vibrant and I know that they make many girls so much more confident! Thank you for highlighting this. I'd love to be part of the sew-along next year. I appreciate your heart for others. You focus on the things that are important in life.
Anna Loeffler
Thank you so much for putting this out there. I am the Chapter Lead in Medford, OR and I wanted to say thank you. I love Days for Girls and our Chapter. We need all the help we can to get the word out. You did a beautiful job of that.
farmhousequiltsblog
Thanks for pointing out this organization! I love finding out about sew-alongs like this. Together we can do so much!
Darci
amy do you have any contacts that are making rice bags for cancer patients? i have made some in the past and mailed them empty to be filled locallly. I would love to make more- i have too much fabric!
Amy
That sounds like such a great project. I hadn't heard of that one specifically before! So, unfortunately, I'm no help on more info there. But I hope you find it!
Deanne Barnes
I too sew for Days For Girls here in Australia. It brings me such joy, thank you for putting this out there.
Amy
Thats awesome, Deanne! Thanks for all YOU are doing!
Terry
Thanks for posting about the DFG organization, I had never heard of it and I think it’s a wonderful cause. Luckily I found a group in my city and contacted them. I hope to be sewing soon for the organization! ❤️
Amy
That's wonderful, Terry!
Maureen
So good to see you highlight Days for Girls. As a team leader in Illinois, I can only encourage women to check out their website. DfG is an amazing organization that provides a much needed quality product. Join the effort to help women stay in school, not have to miss work and have the dignity they deserve.
Jenny
Thank you for highlighting Days for Girls. I’m so excited to be going to the west coast conference in January. I will be the new chapter leader in San Luis Obispo, Ca. I’ve been sewing for DfG for the past year. I love that there are so many ways to get involved.