“Little Dresses for Africa” vs. “Days for Girls”

Last updated on: February 24, 2016 at 9:33 pm by Jane the Actuary

“Little Dresses for Africa” vs. “Days for Girls” 2016-02-24T21:33:46-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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Some time ago, I wrote a little blog post about “Little Dresses for Africa,” in which I did little more than express my surprise that, for as unpromising a charity as LDA appears to be — church groups making “pillowcase” dresses to deliver to African villages, when simply donating the cash used to purchase supplies and ship the items, would likely help more, and potentially support local industry instead, and give girls clothing which is more culturally appropriate — there’s nothing to be found in the way of commentary online. Searches for Little Dresses for Africa criticism, Little Dresses for Africa controversy, etc., turned up nothing.

In fact, that’s still the case — and I get a surprising number of google hits for that post, for that very reason, every now and again, even now.

But there’s another charity, with a similar “sew something for poor third world girls” concept, that I came across the other day, which seems to be doing a better job of combining American women wanting to put their sewing skills to work, and an unmet need. It’s called Days for Girls, and they prepare reusable menstrual pads, to help teen girls stay in school. Hence, the “days” refers to days that would otherwise be lost due to staying at home whenever they have their periods.

It’s hard not to be moved if you browse around on their website, reading about their efforts. They do more than just sew the pads. They produce kits, including a method for washing them even in situations when there are limitations with wash-water access. They teach their recipients about menstruation and health, and try to destigmatize it in places where there is sometimes a significant stigma and limiting taboos. And they build in-country programs where local women produce and/or deliver/sell the kits as well.

Now, as it happened, I played Jane the Journalist, and actually reached out to the organization, and had a conversation with Celeste, who answered some questions I had and shared her enthusiasm about the project.

My first question was, quite simply, “is the sewing effort worth it, or are we better off simply making a cash donation?” — knowing, that is, that any individual hobbyist seamstress in the rich world, buying fabric at the local fabric store and shipping the finished products, pays more for the raw materials than someone buying in bulk, and buying where there’s a lower cost-of-living, and this differential could potentially be great enough that we’d all simply be better off sending in cash than doing the sewing ourselves. Her answer? Both are valued. Even though an end goal is local production, it’s more complex than that; there are issues around supply chain, for instance, that mean that the donation of handmade kits is indeed valued. She called it “seeding the market” — getting the items into the community, so that they can see their value and begin using them and ultimately create a market for in-country production and businesses run by women trained by the Days for Girls organization.

And, second, I asked, seeing all the pictures of smiling girls on the website, what about the women in these countries? Celeste’s answer was simple: they want to help both girls and women, and see the “Girls” in “Days for Girls” as figuratively including women as well. When they distribute at schools, they include the teachers and (when those teachers are men) teachers’ wives, and their intention is, in general, to distribute to all, so far as it’s feasible.

It’s really extraordinary to see how many countries they reach; between donors and recipients, they’re up to 99 nations, and that for only having started 7 years ago.

So, what’s the catch? I really don’t see one.

There is a challenge, though. It’s easy enough for a parish to have a group sewing project, making Linus blankets, or pillowcase dresses. But, even though we don’t have menstrual huts in the U.S., there is still a barrier. After all, if you enlist schoolchildren (e.g., a Girl Scout troop) or the community at large (e.g., in a parish bulletin), well, you’re going to need to explain what the purpose of the items in the kit is!

One last thing: Days for Girls is encouraging supporters to promote the group with a #5MoreDays hashtag campaign — details here. Share the hashtag #5MoreDays on social media, to connect up with the concept that having these kits gives girls 5 more days of school, of living, each month, and then donate, and encourage others to donate, an amount equal to 5 days’ worth of, well, the something of your choice — e.g., your morning latte.

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