13 - How we finished 2020

2020 has been a funny year - we only managed a few meetings at the beginning of the year, and our distribution options changed (see https://wraysburystitch.blogspot.com/2020/07/11-new-distribution-guidelines.html)

But our lovely ladies have been working from home - sewing, cutting and overlocking as well as learning how to pack kits, measure knickers (!) and burrito folding knickers!!!

When people are able to travel safely, and ask for kits to take we will be ready!!!

But in the mean time ... (I am so excited about this)

I spent some money!!!!

Thank you to the Stitch ladies who were on the Stitch Zoom call at the end of November and allowed me to spend £250 from our Stitch fund. I also received donations from group members and had £500 in total to spend (Thank you!).

The overall feeling has been that we were happy to continue the relationship with the Kisumu area of Kenya, but wanted to focus on supporting school girls, so we wanted the kits to go to the school sponsored by KisumuChildren charity

We can't send kits at the moment, and Kisumu is in the red zone so we cant distribute there anyway, but we can buy kits that have been made by a local enterprise in Kisumu: this helps the ladies who make the kits as they earn an income, and the kits will stay in the area as they will go to the Tieng're Primary School

As you may remember the kits need to be presented to the girls by someone who has done the D4G Ambassador of Women's Health training (if you haven't looked at it this is the link - I think it's amazing, especially for free training) https://dfgi.teachable.com/p/dfg-kit-distribution-101. The disadvantage is that we have to pay for the delivery of this information and it's the same cost as about 16 kits.

I was in a dilemma as that's 16 fewer lives we can change. I threw the question to the Kisumu Children UK charity we are working with - they looked the training and came back with a really positive response:

"I've had a look at that link and it looks amazing! I know that the school don't deliver anything like that because they don't have that level of material to work with or that level of nursing/Obgyn training.

I would say that it really is worth it, not just because of the teaching that it will give to the girls but also because of the teaching it will give to the staff at the school to see what they could teach going forward. You would be doing more than giving the kits, you would be investing in school education for the benefit of the future girls coming through. The effects of that $130 will likely be multiplied many times over! Let me know what you decide to do and then if you do invest in the training, we'll also speak to the school afterwards to get their feedback on how they can then do the same for future girls"

So using the "teach a man to fish" philosophy I used $130 of the money to pay a distributor to do the training (for the girls and the staff) and I spent the rest of our £500 on the basic kits plus 2 extra liners and an extra pair of knickers for 67 girls.

As soon as we get the feedback from the school I will post it here - I am so excited for these girls and the difference this will make!!!!