Over this past semester our Year 8 girls have been investigating what life is like for girls in situations very different to our own, such as those who experience poverty, forced child labour, etc. They have been identifying what is ‘normal’ by our standards and what is ‘fair and not fair’ in terms of access to basic human rights. As part of this we are working towards our end of year social justice project ‘Days for Girls’. Days for Girls is a not-for profit social justice project that helps girls regain dignity, health, and equality in educational outcomes through providing access to sustainable feminine hygiene products for girls across 77 developing countries. Our Year 8 girls have already shown significant support and excitement about being involved in this project.
To assist in this project we are seeking donations of:
- Brightly coloured fabric in cotton and flannel (preferably darker colours and with no animal or human faces on them for cultural reasons). It can be basically any size from 30cm wide to several metres.
- Brightly coloured new face washers
- Travel sized soaps
- Large (Gallon) sized zip lock bags.
- Girls new underwear (size 8-14)
- Financial support towards the cost of shipping the kits.
If anyone is able to help in anyway by supplying one or two of these items that would be wonderful. Thank you to those who have already given generously!
On 1 December the Year 8 girls will be spending the entire day creating these kits. Our girls will be cutting out the patterns, sewing the kits and bags to hold them in and assembling the kits. This day can be a powerful tool to enabling the girls to understand at a deeper level how different their lives could be in different circumstances, and helps them to appreciate how blessed they are. It builds compassion and empathy in our young women, and I have already been so impressed by how many of the girls have made donations from their own money, and have invested time sourcing donations from their grandparents sewing cupboard, friends who work at fabric stores, and generous neighbours.
If you would like to know more about this you can visit the website http://www.daysforgirls.org/ and any donations can be brought to the Middle School Co-ordinators office prior to 1 December.
