Page 13 - Presbyterian Connection
P. 13

Connection
MISSION AND OUTREACH
Supporting “Days for Girls” in Nottawa
presbyterian.ca
WINTER 2022
PRESBYTERIAN
13
  By Gloria Phillips, Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Nottawa, Ont.
It took six hours and more than 30 volunteers, but the South Geor- gian Bay, Ont., team of “Days for Girls,” met their goal of packing more than 600 Days for Girls kits in one day, thanks to the help of volunteers from the community and youth from the Pathfinders group. Behind the happy faces pictured are the many boxes that represent their day’s work. But what this picture doesn’t show are the countless hours of work that went into preparing the com- ponents that go into each Days for Girls kit.
Days for Girls was founded by Celeste Mergens in 2008. At the time, Celeste was assisting at an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. In the wake of post-election vio- lence, the population at the or- phanage had swelled from 400 children to 1,400. When Celeste asked about the menstrual health practices of the girls at the or- phanage, she found out that many of the girls spent several days each month sitting on cardboard in their rooms. This was the be- ginning of Days for Girls. It was a long journey from the original reusable feminine hygiene pads that Celeste and her team of vol- unteers invented, to the kits that are distributed today. There have been more than 30 modifica- tions through the years, but in the
years between 2008 and 2021, more than two and a half million women and girls in 145 countries have benefited from the idea that began in an orphanage.
Chris Weston became involved with Days for Girls after seeing a random post about the organi- zation one day on Facebook. As a woman and a retired teacher, Chris was drawn to Days for Girls because of the opportunity it provided for young women to remain in school full-time—many were missing a week or more of school every month. With a pas- sion for education, Chris saw an opportunity to combine her love of sewing with skills learned from her years of teaching.
Knowing she would need sup- port to begin a Days for Girls group in our area, Chris ap- proached her friend and neigh- bour, Karen Milne, a member of the church and a retired teacher and skilled sewer. Together, they formed the South Georgian Bay Team of Days for Girls.
Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Nottawa, Ont., has provided a home for the South Georgian Bay Team of Days for Girls since the fall of 2016. The group is part of Emmanuel’s Donate-A-Day pro- gram, which includes both Days for Girls and making milk bag mats for Milk Bags Unlimited. It was a slow start for the SGB Days for Girls Team. The volun- teers were few, but they were dedicated, so the group began to
grow in numbers.
The group continued to grow
through the pandemic, which brought new challenges to the team, as it did to all of us. They quickly adapted to these chal- lenges, moving their sewing to their homes and seeing a fund- raising opportunity in making face masks. (Much of the money for the supplies needed for the kits comes from fundraising.) In addi- tion to making masks to sell, the team donated almost 700 masks to local charities. They also made 100 isolation gowns, which were donated to the local hospital, the hospice and three nursing homes—all while continuing to sew components for feminine hy- giene kits from their homes.
Today, the team is back at Em- manuel Church, where they meet on the first and third Friday of each month. On those days, the ladies work together, diligently creat-
ing the components that go into each kit—the shield, the liners, the carry pouch and a drawstring bag made of cotton with the Days for Girls label sewn on the front.
With the sewing completed, the next task was purchasing under- wear (two for each kit), wash- cloths (one per kit) and hotel- sized bars of soap (one per kit). The last item for the kit is a care and use instruction card.
On September 10, 34 women and teens gathered at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church with the goal of assembling all 600 kits. When they finished at the end of the day, they had not only met their goal, they had exceeded it by 83 kits! 683 kits were packed and ready to be delivered to World Vision in Mississauga for distribution wherever most needed.
Since their inception in 2016, the South Georgian Bay Team of Days for Girls has also sent 50
kits to the Dominican Republic (2018), 160 kits to the Days for Girls Refugee Project (2019), 60 kits to Wollo, the Democractic Re- public of the Congo (2019), 161 kits to Lebanon (2020), 43 kits to Wollo (2020), 50 kits to Haiti (2021) and 542 kits to World Vi- sion Canada (2021).
Each kit costs between $15 and $20 to make and financial do- nations are always gratefully ac- cepted and can be made through CanadaHelps at canadahelps.org, under “Days for Girls Canada” and choose the “South Georgian Bay, Ont.” option.
Days for Girls provides holis- tic menstrual health education, increases access to menstrual products and advances global menstrual equity through part- nerships with governments and health coalitions. Learn more about Days for Girls International at daysforgirls.org.
  Knit and Knatter in Uxbridge
By Anne Phillips and Melanie Beattie, St. Andrew’s-Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Uxbridge, Ont.
The pandemic has been a diffi- cult time for everyone, and while we’ve had our share of chal- lenges at St. Andrew’s-Chalmers Presbyterian Church in Uxbridge, Ont., it also became the perfect opportunity to reflect upon who we are as Christians and how we
can put our faith into action. It was because of this time of self- reflection that we developed our mission statement: Acting in faith, we offer care and community to all. We realized how important a sense of belonging is, not just within the walls of the church but well beyond into the community.
St. Andrew’s-Chalmers Pres- byterian Church has been home to the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank for the past 30 years. Last
winter, a caring person donated some warm hats, mittens and scarves to the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank for their clientele. This bred “a germ of an idea” for the start of a Knit and Knatter group.
The congregation began a sev- en-week program where people from the church could meet to knit hats, mittens and scarves for cli- ents of the Food Bank. Since the lo- cal United Church was destroyed in the devastating tornado that struck
Uxbridge, their church members were invited to join us as well. Word of the group soon spread and incited members of the local community to also join. When the program was announced, a non- knitting member of the congre- gation donated $50 to purchase wool, and there have been other donations of wool as well.
The knitting has been going well, and we will have plenty of winter items ready for the clients
of the Food Bank. But this has not been the only benefit of starting the group. People have been en- joying being together again and being able to share a cup of tea and some conversation. We have already been asked if Knit and Knatter could start up in the new year. At the time of writing, the de- cision has not yet been made, but it would be safe to assume that, at the very least, this will be an annual fall event.
    































































   11   12   13   14   15