Kenya - Mindset

Going to Kenya didn’t come easily for me.

I was terrified.

I didn’t want to leave my husband. I didn’t want to leave my girls. I was sure they would die in a fiery car crash or get eaten by a pack of wild coyotes and I would have to return to no one. Or that my plane would crash over one of the too many bodies of water and I would get eaten alive by blood thirsty sharks, leaving my kids without a mom to make them eat their vegetables. My brain was relentless. Nightmares plagued me over the months leading up to the trip, and I just kept praying the same thing:

God, shut the door.

I didn’t say, “God, if it’s your will, please shut the door so I don’t have to go,” or “Whatever is your will is what I want.” No. I demanded, pleaded. “God, SHUT THE DOOR.”

But He never did.

Actually, He kept propping that stupid door open. I got all the donations I needed to make the pads. I had a huge team of talented volunteers help make all the pads. We got more than double the necessary number of underwear and soaps donated. I already had a passport that I don’t even remember getting. Immunizations went well. Lily and Maze took off like a rocket supplying me with funds I needed for up-front supplies. I got more than enough donations from friends and family to pay for my trip.

Door. Open.

Brent and I had a plan. (I know, I know. God laughs at our plans. Let me tell you, He certainly had a good ol’ side-holding giggle-fest over this one.) Many of you who know me well know I have a heart for the down trodden. I cringe when I hear bullying stories and my heart just breaks when I hear stories of people not being treated with the love and grace God entrusts us to give out. Our plan was always to be involved in missions and helping people around the world TOGETHER, we just wanted to wait until our kids were grown. Makes perfect, logical sense to me. But God’s timing was not dependent on my comfort zone and He made it abundantly clear that I was to go to Kenya on this last vision trip. Me being gone was disruptive to my family, for sure. Brent had to take two weeks off work to watch the girls. I missed Lily putting together sentences for the first time. I missed Clara’s sweet dances. (Although, I did get a “I have a whole new respect for you” from my husband after only a couple days being gone, so that was nice!)

I’m writing this to you so you can understand where I was mentally and spiritually leading up to this trip. It wasn’t easy. It brought me out of my comfort zone. But at no point did I feel I wasn’t supposed to be doing this. I knew (but wished I didn’t) that God was calling me to go, to speak into the lives of the women of Lodwar, to encourage them and give them value.

So I went.
With Tums.
Lots of Tums.


Over the next little bit of time I will be sharing about my experiences. Writing is my way to decompress, my catharsis.

Now that I’m home, I have littles to attend to and a house to run and a business to open back up. I have children’s activities and outings. I have Lego castles to build and emergency stuffed puppy dog surgery to oversee. Life didn’t stop while I was gone; it just kept being lived. And now I’m playing catch up.


So, dear friends, please be patient with me as I gather my thoughts (and pictures, which may end up being the more difficult part of this process). I will write soon and share every small bit of me I can.

Thank you all for your prayers. Talk to you soon.

Kenya Pad Initiative and Trip Update

The past few months have been extremely busy for me. I started a business (more on that later), I lead groups and sewed pads, I collected and organized underwear and soap, I spent incredibly valuable time with my family. I began attending church on Wednesday nights with my family. I joined MOPS. I spent time with friends and family, experiencing life-on-life relationships.

I did not blog.

I have been wanting to write this letter to you all, my wonderful supporters, and I am so glad to have the time now to share with you the progress of this project (for those of you not following me on Instagram, where I have been posting LOTS of pictures of the progress). When I last wrote, we were planning to make the trip to Kenya in May 2015. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we moved the trip to September 2015, a time that worked well for our hosts in Lodwar. Our trip is September 21st - October 1st 2015, just a couple short days away!


I hosted three sewing days for pad construction: one at The Grove church in Gilbert, AZ and two at CrossRoads Nazarene Church in Chandler, AZ. We had many people attend and help complete our goal of 600 pads! We ended up with 602 pads total, giving us enough to make kits for 200 women in Lodwar. Many of you donated underwear and soap for our kits, as well. We ended up with SO much soap (more than enough to fulfil our needs) and more than double the pairs of underwear we needed for our kits. You are all amazing and generous and we could NOT have accomplished any of this without your help!

Here's what I have been up to since March:


Shortly after posting the tutorial for the pad design, I began getting together with groups of volunteers to cut, sort, and sew the components for making the pads. Over the following months, we were able to continue our work at home, cutting at kitchen tables and turning points while sitting on the couch watching our favorite shows. We built a great little community, all working together toward a common goal. I was especially grateful to have my mom's help. She was (and is!) the last stop in our pad making production line. She carefully and meticulously inspected each and every pad that we finished, pulling out the ones that needed some more work and adding snaps to the top quality pads. Even though we ended up with 602 pads, there are still some that need a little more attention. They are sitting patiently, waiting for me to finish writing so I can fix them up for her to snap. I just handed her three more tonight!! (And she thought she was finished snapping... :) )


Mom at Sewing Day

A little road trip unpicking. Family vacation to Oceanside, CA this summer.

Some of the pads I got back needed a little TLC, so a few of us spent some time unpicking pads and remaking them so they could be taken with us to Lodwar. I learned a lot in this process and have been planning to redesign the pads to make them easier to sew and more efficient for the recipients. I'm hoping to utilize the Days for Girls pattern, but I need to speak with our public health specialist to find out if the change will be helpful or not. Their pattern uses a trifold insert that, when hanging on a line, resembles a washcloth. Much more discreet and may use less water to clean, which is helpful, especially in the desert. I also have a couple of extremely intelligent and talented friends who have offered to help me with the redesign, so I'm hoping to get together with them when I return to hear their ideas.


Start-to-finish, it took about 20 minutes to make one pad. Of course, when I made them I used an assembly line method, cutting down the time per pad, but if you were to create one from scratch, it would take about 20 full minutes. Maybe a little more. The volunteers worked tirelessly to make all these pads! I had such a fabulous group of helpers and donors! Creating 600 pads is no small task!


As you can imagine, cutting the material for over 600 pads resulted in a ridiculous amount of scraps and thread trash. Rather than throw all those bits away, I made dog beds out of larger pieces of donated materials that could not be used for the pads (knit, terry cloth) and had my daughters stuff the dog bed shells with the scraps we created. It was a great way to use what would have been headed to the trash bin, and it gave my girls a hands-on job in the process. I try to include them in as many ways as I can. I want them to grow up to have a heart for helping people. I want them to understand how blessed we are and how wonderful it is to bless others. In total, we stuffed 15 dog beds to donate.



I also had the girls help with other tasks, like folding the pads to stuff the kits!


At some point over these past months, I reached out to my friends on Instagram and Facebook, asking for donations of women's cotton underwear and travel sized soaps. The response was overwhelming! We couldn't even get into my craft room for a while there because of all the packages and donations. Thankfully, my mom bailed me out and offered to let us use the closet beneath her staircase to store all the Kenya Pad Initiative related materials. After taking it over to her house, we worked together to organize and count so we could keep track of what we had, as well as what we needed.



Just this last week, I loaded my car down with all the things she was storing and took them up to CrossRoads Nazarene Church where a group of women and young ladies from the youth group helped us get the pad kits together. Each kit includes three pairs of underwear, three pads, and one travel size soap, all held together in a muslin drawstring bag. The bags are all labeled with the size underwear and packed away, ready for us to take on our trip next week.


Packing pad kits in my craft room. I don't have the pictures of the volunteer group helping stuff the other kits yet.
Meanwhile, I have been preparing myself for the trip. I had all my shots and immunizations. I applied for my eVisa, which is a thing now if you plan to travel to Nairobi, and was approved. I went to Passport Health. I have attended meetings and talked with many people who have travelled to or lived in the region we will be visiting. I helped pick out crafts to bring to the children. I bought a floppy hat to keep the sun off my face.

And I bought bug repellent.

Lots of bug repellent.

With DEET.

I think I am just about ready to go. I have a small backpack that will carry all my necessities for the trip. While in Nairobi, I can wear jeans, but in Lodwar, I have to wear a floor length skirt and shirt that covers my shoulders. I have my unscented shampoo and conditioner and soap and I have duct tape to fix any holes in mosquito nets. I still have to wash my clothes in the special mosquito repelling soap, but I have my converse packed! Apparently there are very large, sharp thorns in Lodwar that will puncture the soles of shoes. I'm wearing my converse because they have the hardest soles of the shoes I have. Maybe if I ever go back to Kenya I'll invest in a pair of hiking shoes! I'm trying to pack as lightly as possible so we can save the weight for more water filters or medical supplies. I AM bringing my Kindle though. 36 hours in a plane (one direction) is a long time. I'm hoping to get in some reading!


Fueled by coffee.
To fund the trip, I did two things: I wrote a letter to friends and family asking for donations and I opened a business. I am so grateful to everyone who donated! At this point, I have $50 MORE than what the trip costs. This is before I put in the money I have raised from my editing contracts and my new business, which is awesome, because now that money I've raised can go toward the trips of the other people on the team! If I had any doubt that God wanted me to go on this trip, those doubts were silenced when God provided everything I needed! I have a fully funded trip. I have all 200 kits. My husband was able to take the time off work to stay home with the girls. I am healthy and strong! God is good!


The business I started is called Lily and Maze and you can find it on Etsy or at lilyandmaze.com. This all started because of Kenya:


My booth at the Bloom Boutique. I also made that quilt on the wall to be raffled off to raise money for the youth group!
I began making these bangle bracelets for friends. I never intended to create a business out of it. But one day, my friend Stacey asked me to sign-up for a booth at the Bloom Boutique in Chandler, AZ. At first I told her "no", knowing I had my hands full prepping all the pads for the Kenya Pad Initiative. Then, a few days later, I found out I was actually GOING to Kenya, something I didn't think was possible. I called her back and accepted her offer to sell at the boutique and I made my bangles. I didn't sell extremely well at the boutique, but I had so much fun doing it, I decided to keep making and selling them, putting the profits away to pay for my Kenya trip. Then I had more people start asking me about my bangles and wanting to know when I was going to open shop on Etsy. So, after discussing with my husband at length, I decided to do it. I applied for a business license, got an EIN, and opened an Etsy. It has been so fun owning a business. I love making these bangles and necklaces for people, and I get to make ones I like: nerdy, crafty, book geek and Disney inspired! Right now, all proceeds are going to the Kenya Project, and after this trip, I am going to continue giving a portion of the profits to the Kenya Project. It's the only reason I started the business. It only seems right. You can see my shop story here. This link has lots more information regarding the creation and running of my business. I will be closing my shop in a few days as I prepare for my trip and will remain closed until I get home.

We will be flying to Washington, D.C. > Brussels, Belgium > Nairobi, Kenya. Lodwar is another plane ride from Nairobi, but it is a small plane with weight restrictions. We will have a stopover in another town to refuel before we can make it to Lodwar. We will be going from Lodwar to Kakuma Refugee Camp. This leg of the trip will be made in a vehicle over rough terrain and will take us about 3-4 hours to reach Kakuma. Going to Kakuma was not originally on our itinerary, but we know they have needs we might be able to help with, so we are going. I hear the movie "The Good Lie" is about Kakuma. It stars Reese Witherspoon, although I haven't had the time to rent and watch it yet. I'd like to when I get back. Kakuma is home to many Sudanese refugees, about 186,000 people. 18,000 of those people are orphaned children, sent on the 100 mile trip across the border into Kenya by their parents who felt their chances of life were better than if they were to stay in Sudan. From Kakuma, we will return to Lodwar, the stopover, then Nairobi. Then we will fly from Nairobi, Kenya > Brussels, Belgium > Chicago, IL > HOME! We leave early on September 21st and return home October 1st. We will be leaving Nairobi the evening of September 30th. I give you all this information in hopes you will pray for us, for safe flights and emotional strength.

I think that is what I am most concerned about: emotional strength. Before I had kids, I never cried about anything. My grandma, my favorite person in the whole wide world, died, and I didn't shed a tear. Now I cry at car commercials and radio announcements and my daughter's picture books! I like to be compassionate, and I want the people we are visiting to know I care about their circumstances and their lives, but I don't want to cry all the time. I've already teared up a few times writing this! I'm emotionally attached to these people I've never met, but I don't want them to think I pity them. I don't want them to think there is something wrong with them. So one of my biggest prayer requests is that God would give me peace and strength throughout the day and allow me to deal with my emotions back at the sleeping quarters or in our personal debrief.

So that's it. My very informative but slightly ineloquent blog post. I'm hoping to write more when I return (I won't have internet while I'm there) and, as always, follow me on Instagram at @dheyen or on Facebook with the user name Danny Hambrick Heyen. You can follow my shop at @lilyandmaze on Instagram as well. I post a lot of different pictures there regarding the Kenya Pad Initiative since it is such a central part of my business. You can also check out any of the following hashtags: #lilyandmaze #kenyapadinitiave #lodwarlove #crnazpads #crnaz

Please pray for us, the entire team: Heidi (our leader), Lorenze (our videographer), Dr. Andy, Molly, and me.

I appreciate you all so much. Thank you for the kind thoughts, positivity, encouragement, donations, and friendship throughout this whole process. I love you all!

Kenya Pad Initiative - The Story

If you are looking for the menstrual pad tutorial, click here.

For those of you who do not already know, here is the story of how I got involved in making washable, reusable pads for the women and girls in Lodwar, Kenya.

A few years ago, my church, Crossroads Nazarene in Chandler, AZ, began a new partnership with Lodwar, Turkana County, Kenya. Together with a few other groups, including UNICEF, our goal is to help eradicate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in this patriarchal society.

I have always been mission-minded.
I'm a helper.
One of my top love languages is Acts of Service. I show love by doing things for people. By being there. By being present. Available in times of need.

I wanted to get involved with the mission, but being a new mom, GOING to Kenya was out of the question. I couldn't BE there. I couldn't help in the traditional ways I always envisioned for myself. I began to pray and ask God how I could get involved, knowing that I was more-or-less stuck state-side. I have few tangible skills and I didn't really see how quilting was going to specifically help this group of women.

Then, about a year, year-and-a-half ago, Heidi (one of the leaders at our church who works with our Mercy department {outreach}) began asking for disposable pads to take to the women and girls on their upcoming trip to Lodwar. I thought, "Hey! I can do that!" and bought up some bags of pads as my budget allowed, but it got me thinking: how are the disposable pads going to help in the long-run? Once they're used, they will be burned and the women and girls will be right back where they started. Why don't we MAKE some that can be washed and reused?

I approached our Mercy team with the idea and they loved it! After discussing with the leadership planted in Kenya, we got the approval to move forward with the project. For the past year or so, I have been researching, interviewing, YouTubing, and testing different products and designs to find which would be the best for the women in Lodwar. We settled on the design we're using and now, we are trying to get the pad kits together before the next trip in May. Our plan is to give kits to 200 women, each kit consisting of three pair of underwear, three washable, reusable pads, and one bar of soap. The women and girls who receive a kit will have to go to the Wings of Hope counseling center, which is connected to the hospital there in Lodwar, to learn about how to care for their pads and how to use them. This means we need 600 pads made, 600 pairs of underwear donated, and 200 bars of soap donated.

We have two goals with this project:

1. To keep the young girls in school. The week of their period is considered their "week of shame", and without the proper protection, they are forced to stay home from school, and after a few months, they struggle to catch up and many end up dropping out. (More on that in Heidi's letter below.)

2. To build up educated, confident women who will open a small business making these pads in their own region, creating jobs and opportunity in an area where women are not often afforded those possibilities. Heidi told me about this clay working company there in Kenya: A few women came together to open a small business making clay beaded jewelry to sell. They now sell mugs along with their jewelry and employ 200 women, who have their jobs for life. I'd love to see something like that come of this project.

This is not toxic charity. We are not throwing money at a problem, but actively trying to help the women and girls succeed in school so that one day they can contribute to their society.

There are countless stories of what's going on there, but here is an email Heidi wrote to our group of volunteers as we were beginning this handmade journey:

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There is some discussion going on about the possibility of making reusable/washable menstrual pads for the women & girls of Lodwar, Kenya. Many of the girls there do not finish school, and their menstrual cycle is one of the main reasons. The region is a very poor one, so many (I would venture to say MOST) girls do not have the resources to procure feminine hygiene products. I want to share with you the context behind the discussion.

One of the meetings we sat in on my first visit there (Sept ’13), the teachers and school headmasters shared that once a girl started her cycle she would begin to miss one week of school a month. Month after month the amount she misses compounds until she is far behind, has missed foundational concepts and can no longer keep up with the class. And so she drops out of school.

For those who stay in school, many are using pieces of their mattresses for absorbency. The mattresses used there are more like a tempurpedic type of mattress, made with a foamy or spongey material. They are usually 2-4" thick (depending on the quality/ how much is paid) and the width of a twin mattress here. Girls will tear off pieces of their mattresses to use as feminine hygiene products, while their mattress shrinks in size each month, until there is no mattress. And then she finds herself in the same position as the first girl.

This last trip (March ’14) we took over a bunch of disposable pads (collected whatever people were willing to give), and I purchased a few reusable/washable types to take over as kits. We gave them to the Field Coordinator and the Public Health Rep there and asked them to get back with us on whether they thought the washable ones were something they could use, that would be helpful in that region. Lodwar is located on top of two large aquifers, so water is available. Though most cannot afford to have it piped to their homes, a pump or well or river is within walking distance. (Their walking distance is a lot farther than ours. They walk everywhere. We walk to the parking lot.) So the reusable/washable pads are usable there. Both Sam and Whitney {Danny note: Sam and Whitney are our liaisons to the area and part of that leadership I talked about earlier. Sam is a local pastor.} agreed that they would like to do kind of a pilot program, train how to use them, distribute some, and then evaluate before moving forward. This is where you come in. :0)

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Another story Heidi shared with me really hurt my heart: The government in Kenya, at one point, gave school-aged girls each a pair of underwear and a few disposable pads to help keep them in school. The men and boys were so outraged the girls were given preferential treatment that they retaliated. The government then gave the men and boys bags with seven pairs of underwear and pants and other things just to make them happy, and no more packages went to those girls who NEED the feminine hygiene products. Women are treated as second-class citizens, if not property. They are often raped (and when asked about it during the very first trip, the women didn't even consider rape as something they feared, just as a part of life). The mothers try to mutate their daughter's bodies to make them less desirable. It's a terrible world they live in, one we are trying to make better with this small project.

As the letter said, this is a pilot program. We want to roll out these kits to 200 women then evaluate how they help. Whitney may come back and tell us the pads aren't helping. She may come back and say they are wonderful and to send more. We may need to make them longer or shorter or more absorbent, but for now, we are sending these in hopes they will make a radical change in the lives of these women.

And, who knows? Maybe it will be great and we can expand to help women in regions other than Lodwar. Maybe we can help women in other countries. I'm not sure where we will end up, but I'm confident we are beginning on the right foot.

There are lots of other organizations out there doing the same thing but we wanted to help the community we're working in, so we chose to do our own grassroots program. If you have any questions about what we are doing or how to get involved, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in the comments if you want me to get back to you.

I am looking for help in making these pads. I am also looking for donations of flannel, fleece, PUL (waterproofing layer found in the cloth diapering section of craft stores), snaps (size 16), and thread (cotton or polyester). If you are interested in donating in any way, please contact me so I can get you the information you need.

danny{dot}heyen{at}gmail

And if you don't have donations and you can't make the pads, I would love your prayers, good thoughts, and positive vibes. We are changing lives with this little project and I am so grateful for your support!

Menstrual Pad Tutorial Here

Kenya Pad Initiative - Menstrual Pad Tutorial

If you are looking for the story of how I got involved, click here.

The Kenya Pad Initiative has begun and I couldn't be more excited. This weekend I had a group of people come together at Crossroads Nazarene Church in Chandler, AZ to help make menstrual pads for the women in Lodwar, Kenya. I wanted to wait to post this tutorial until I had a chance to have people test it. Changes have been made and now I think it is ready for all of you to see!

We need 600 menstrual pads for our first distribution to the Lodwar women. We are hoping to have three washable, reusable pads, three pair of underwear, and a bar of soap in each kit to give out to 200 women. They will be required to get their kits from the local counseling center (Wings of Hope) where they will learn to take care of their pad kits, how to use them and how to clean them. Our hope is to equip 200 women, including school-aged girls, with these kits and get their feedback for how we can adapt the pattern to better suit their needs. Once we have feedback from these women, we will be making many more to hopefully reach all the girls and women in need in this area of the world.

If you are interested in making pads for this cause, please contact me to let me! I can let you know where to send them when you are finished. If you can't make pads but have some extra flannel or fleece or thread lying around that you would like to donate, please let me know! We are taking donations! If you don't want to make these for others, but want to make them for yourself, feel free to use this pattern.

DOWNLOADS ON MY GOOGLE DRIVE:

Menstrual Pad Tutorial [this blog post in Word .DOCX file format]

Inside Pad Template [pdf]

Outside Pad Template [pdf]

Menstrual Pad Tutorial
Materials:

(1) Fleece outer piece for the bottom
(1) Flannel outer piece for the top
(1) PUL liner
(2) Flannel liners
Thread

Tools:

Sewing machine
Pins
Marking pen
Scissors
Rotary cutter/Cutting mat (optional)
Chopstick

1. Prepare your templates


Print and assemble your templates. The outer pad template spans four printed pages. Cut out each piece and tape them together to create one outer pad template. Cut out your templates and trace onto cardboard, then cut out the cardboard templates. This is especially helpful if you will be using the rotary cutter to cut the fabrics.

2. Cut the fabric


MAKE SURE YOU PREWASH ALL FABRICS BEING USED FOR THIS PROJECT.

Using your cardboard template, trace the pad shape onto the appropriate fabric and cut it out using scissors.


If you own a rotary cutter and cutting mat, you can rotary cut through multiple layers of fabric at a time, using the cardboard cutout as your straight edge. Be sure to use a sharp rotary blade so you can cleanly cut through the multiple layers.


3. Assemble the liner


The liner of the basic menstrual pad is made with two (2) flannel liner pieces and one (1) PUL liner piece. You will need to lay the PUL on top of the two flannel pieces, waterproofing side down toward the flannel. (The waterproofing side is the shiny, smooth side.)


Pin the stacked liners to the wrong side of the flannel or quilting cotton outer piece. To reiterate, place the outer flannel pieces right side down, place the two flannel liners on top (right side or wrong side is fine), and place the PUL liner piece with the smooth, shiny, waterproofing side down. I like to use four pins to hold my layers in place. The PUL is super slippery and will move around if you don’t secure it in some way.

4. Stitch the liner to the outer piece


Using about a 2.5 stitch length, topstitch around the liner (about 1/8” from the edge). Backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitch path.


Clip the thread tails.

5. Assemble the menstrual pad


Place the fleece outer piece pilled (or rough) side up. If your fleece is anti-pill, you will not need to worry about the direction of the fabric. It may be nice to place the side with the clearer image (right side) up so the design will show on the final product. Place the quilted, top outer piece on top of the fleece bottom outer piece, right sides together.


Pin around the edges of the pad. On one end (shown on the right side in the photograph above), place two pins about 3/4” from each of the corners. This will mark your starting point and ending point when stitching around the perimeter of the pad. Between the two pins will be left open (unsewn) so the pad can be turned right side out. It is important that you stitch around the corners here. It makes the opening easier to close after you have turned the pad right side out.


Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitch path to lock the threads in place. Stitch around the perimeter of the pad, turning at the corners. Use between ¼” and 5/8” seam allowance.


Clip the thread tails.

6. Turning the pad


You will need to clip notches at the corners of the pad, both inward and outward. This will help give the pad crisp points when completed. In the photograph above, the lower portion of the pad has been clipped while the top portion has not. The top portion has been marked where notches should be cut. You will need to clip close to the stitches. Be careful not to clip through any stitches.



Turn the pad right side out through the opening you left on the end.


Use a chopstick to press corners outward. Press carefully so you do no rip through the stitches in the corners.

7. Closing holes: intentional and not


To close the opening you used for turning, fold the seam allowance for each fabric into the hole and pin shut.

Sometimes you will end up with a hole in the seam after turning the pad right side out. To remedy this, fold the seam allowance for each fabric into the hole and pin shut.


Once all the holes are pinned closed, topstitch around the edges of the pad, closing the holes and giving the pad shape. Remember to backstitch at the beginning and end of your stitch trail.



Clip the thread tails.


Here, you can see the hole from the aforementioned photograph is closed.


A note about accuracy: You do not have to worry about unstitching if you overstitch your mark. Due to the nature of these menstrual pads, there will be slight discrepancies in the construction and that is okay. They are utilitarian and will not be rendered unusable by slight variations in stitching.

Completed product:


The above picture shows the completed sewing project. If you would like to stop here, please feel free to do so. The last step is applying a snap closure to the wings, which can be completed by people who already own the tools and supplies at the collection site.

If you would like to add snaps, here are some images to show how to install. Directions for installing snaps can be found on the package for snap installation pliers. We are using size16 (11 mm/.43 inch) snaps. These can be found in the cloth diapering section of Jo-Ann.




How can you help?

Even if you are unable to help cut or sew, you can help by donating the supplies or tools we need to make more menstrual pads.


We need fleece, flannel (including receiving blankets), and PUL, which can be found in the cloth diapering section of Jo-Ann. We are looking for these specific materials, so please do not donate items like curtains or tablecloths. We will need yardage of the above fabrics for these pads. If you are purchasing to donate, try to get a flannel that does not have a painted design on it, as these designs affect the absorbency of the fabric.


If you would rather donate notions or tools, we can use any cotton or polyester thread (this is a great thread stash buster project!), snap pliers, and coordinating snaps. Snaps and pliers are found in the cloth diapering section of Jo-Ann.

Please feel free to share about this on your blog or other social media. I would love to get as many people involved as possible!