Days for Girls Camp Hill PA Team

12/04/2024

Our Latest “Days for Girls” Distribution
Thanks to Campbell Plowden, President/Executive Director at Amazon Ecology, for these photos of the latest distribution of our menstrution kits in Pucaurquillo, Loreto, Peru. These ladies and girls are so grateful to have this needed help. Along with the kits, they attend a class for instruction on their use and are taught valuable information on managing their periods.
Also many thanks to the Days for Girls Team in Camp Hill, PA, for their continued dedicated work to make these wonderful, washable kits that can last 3-4 years. If you would like to help making the DfG kits, send an email to our local team at [email protected]. I promise it's very rewarding work - and fun. We are part of this wonderful worldwide organization DaysforGirls.org.

10/17/2024

You can help our team make these beautiful kits for just 4-8 hours a month. email: [email protected]

At Days for Girls, we are committed to ensuring that women and girls worldwide have access to period products and education, and our supply chain helps us reach them! 🌍🛠️

What does this look like? In the United States, we operate three key collection points, where amazing volunteers assemble washable menstrual health Kits. These Kits are then sent to those in need, often as part of humanitarian aid, reaching refugees, internally displaced persons, or those affected by conflict or natural disasters. 📦

Throughout the African continent, where DfG has a supply hub in Nairobi, Kenya, the DfG supply chain looks like negotiating with suppliers to get the best possible prices, including a recent 20% reduction in the cost of materials in East Africa. This means better-priced, quality products that reach girls in both rural and urban communities. 🤝

At DfG, we are committed to providing the highest quality washable pads to those who need them. When people have what they need to menstruate safely, they have increased confidence to participate in school, work, and society and pursue their goals. 🌸📚

To learn more about what makes a DfG pad, check out our website! 💻

www.daysforgirls.org/dfg-pads

12/07/2023

WHERE DO OUR KITS GO?

In almost 5 years of sewing, the ‘Camp Hill Days for Girls’ team has sent mensuration kits to South Sudan through the Mennonite Central Committee, to Lebanon after the big explosion, to an orphanage for deaf girls in Senegal, and to a Pittsburgh DfG distribution site sending kits to Cuba. Our most recent batch of kits was donated to a native village in the Peruvian Amazon with the help of Campbell Plowden, Executive Director of the non-profit group Amazon Ecology based in Camp Hill. Campbell travels to Peru twice a year to help his group train artisans from 18 native and campesino communities to make and market woven bird ornaments and other fair-trade handicrafts. Amazon Ecology sells some of these crafts in Peru and the US to help artisan families make a living without damaging the forest. They reinvest part of their sales to support health, education and conservation needs in their partner communities.

We gave Campbell 50 of our kits to take with him on his fall trip to Peru. He learned about Days for Girls from Dana Babbit - a retired school teacher from Oregon who they invited to give a presentation about menstruation to the women in the village of Amazonas on the Maranon River in April. She also gave the girls 40 kits she had bought from DFG. DFG's education course helps young women understand how their bodies function, how to care for themselves and how to properly use the reusable kits so they last three to four years. The women wrote us that they very much welcomed our kits since buying disposable products is hard and expensive and disposing of them often pollutes their community.

Since this first round of donating kits to women in the Peruvian Amazon went so well, we and Campbell plan to continue this collaboration with Amazon Ecology to deliver more kits to women in other villages where it works and enlist Dana's help to do the critical education part of kit distribution. The value of these healthy products is even greater in some of Amazon Ecology's even more remote partner villages which are a day's trip by boat to the nearest town and access to paper menstrual products.

Thanks to all the ladies on our team for their dedicated work sewing kits, to Campbell and Amazon Ecology for bringing these kits to women in the Peruvian villages and to Dana for teaching the menstruation classes.

If you enjoy sewing and would like to join our team, please send an email to [email protected] for more information. We meet twice a month at the Giant Community Room in Camp Hill.

06/10/2022

Days for Girls

Below are some photos of our last sewing day on June 8, 2022, for “Days for Girls”. We are still meeting at Giant Food Community Room on Trindle Rd, Camp Hill. THANKS to all these fun ladies that came to help sew kits that we distribute to girls to help them manage their periods. Also a big thanks to Giant for providing the use of their Community Room. Our next 5 meetings will be Wednesdays 6/22; 7/6; 7/20; Friday 8/12; and Wednesday 8/31.

Bring your sewing machine and come join us for a fun sewing session and then lunch downstairs in the Giant snack area. To see what we sew, log onto DaysforGirls.org or email us for more information at [email protected].

04/01/2022

Another fun sewing day was had by these wonderful ladies last week. We got a lot of sewing done and took a break for a nice lunch down in Giant’s snack area. Thank you ladies for taking time out of your day to help with our Days for Girls worthwhile project. Also thanks again to the Giant Food for use of their Community Room.
Our next sewing day is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13, at 10:00 am at the Giant Food store on Trindle in Camp Hill. If you would like to join us, just show up with your sewing or serger machine. For more information email: [email protected]. Check out our international organization and the work we do at DaysforGirls.org. Also, we accept clean, new, cotton materials if you want to clean out your stash!!! Also, we have other small jobs you can do without a machine.
Thanks for any help!

01/30/2022

How it all began! Days for Girls began in 2008 when Founder and CEO, Celeste Mergens, was working with a foundation in Kenya assisting an orphanage in the outskirts of Nairobi. In the wake of historic post-election violence, the population at the orphanage had swelled from 400 children to 1,400.

Upon inquiring about the menstrual health practices of the many girls at the orphanage, Celeste learned that many were sitting on cardboard in their rooms for several days each month – often going without food unless someone would bring it to them. This set into motion her first intervention: disposable pads. But Celeste and her team quickly discovered that without any place to dispose of the pads, this was not a viable or sustainable solution.

It was time for plan B: a washable, long-lasting pad.

The first Days for Girls Kits were quite different from the design we use today. Each of the 30 iterations that followed would be informed by extensive feedback and designed to meet unique cultural and environmental conditions in communities throughout the world. It quickly became clear just how powerful menstrual health solutions are in helping menstrual women and girls break the cycle of poverty and live their lives with dignity.

Our next step was to develop a health education curriculum that would be included in each DfG Kit distribution. With user-centered product design and curriculum in place, the final stage was to launch a Social Entrepreneurship program that enables local women to start their own Days for Girls businesses – and serve as vital thought leaders and suppliers within their own communities.

01/21/2022

What’s missing?

Our “Camp Hill PA Days for Girl” team met on Wednesday, the 19th.
Thanks to the Giant Food for the use of their Community Room - and how convenient to break for lunch downstairs and have a wide variety of food to choose from!
What is missing is our sewing machines which was great because we did not have to carry them in this time.
Instead, the ladies met to do some fabric pressing, and cutting then sorting cut blocks, PUL and pockets into sets to be sewn into shields at our next meeting.
Thanks to Laura Karlsen, Leslie Robinson, Kathy DeNofrio, Betty Olsen, Tricia Wucinski, Janet Fisher, Teresa Crawford, Hanna Palmer, and Maike Beu for coming our on a frigid day to help!
If you want to join this delightful group, email: [email protected]
Also, only 10 days left to bid/buy quilted items displayed at the Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, PA. Check them out! Email bids to: [email protected]
You can also Donate:
https://donate.daysforgirls.org/CampHillPA

01/14/2022

Simpson Library Auction

Camp Hill Days for Girls has another display with items up for auction in Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, PA. Below is a list of available items. Please stop in to see these hand made quilted items up close. You can email us for more info on items - sizes, etc.
You can bid on any item by emailing [email protected]
Please include your name; phone #; email address; the number of the item bidding on; and your opening bid.
You will be contacted every time a higher bid comes in.

Items and Starting bids:
5 Quilts:
1. Purple Bars - My Little Pony - $75
2. Black/White throw - $70
3. Flannel Star Quilt - $50
4. Flannel squares quilt - $50
5. Flannel stripes quilt - $50
6. Quilted checkers set - $22
7. Satin Sheep Tag blanket - $12
8. Satin Owl Tag Blanket - $12

The Animal purses with zipper opening on backs, embroidered noses & whiskers are not bid items but can be purchased for $15. Also 4 fold purses are $15.

Bidding will close at midnight January 31st and arrangements will be made to deliver items and receive payment first week in Feb.

Thanks for helping us to help young girls out of period poverty. Check out DfG website to see the work being done around the world:
DaysforGirls.org
Questions: [email protected]

01/14/2022

SIMPSON LIBRARY AUCTION
 Library Auction

Camp Hill Days for Girls has another display with items up for auction in Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, PA. Below is a list of available items. Please stop in to see these hand made quilted items up close. You can email us for more info on items - sizes, etc.
You can bid on any item by emailing [email protected]
Please include your name; phone #; email address; the number of the item bidding on; and your opening bid.
You will be contacted every time a higher bid comes in.

Items and Starting bids:
5 Quilts:
1. Purple Bars - My Little Pony - $75
2. Black/White throw - $70
3. Flannel Star Quilt - $50
4. Flannel squares quilt - $50
5. Flannel stripes quilt - $50
6. Quilted checkers set - $22
7. Satin Sheep Tag blanket - $12
8. Satin Owl Tag Blanket - $12

The Animal purses with zipper opening on backs, embroidered noses & whiskers are not bid items but can be purchased for $15. Also 4 fold purses are $15.

Bidding will close at midnight January 31st and arrangements will be made to deliver items and receive payment first week in Feb.

Thanks for helping us to help young girls out of period poverty. Check out DfG website to see the work being done around the world:
DaysforGirls.org
Questions: [email protected]

12/11/2021

Pictures from our talented “DaysforGirls”sewing team at the Giant Community Room in November. Our team is growing and making progress. THANK YOU wonderful ladies!

For more information email:
[email protected]
Web: DaysforGirls.org

11/12/2021

Is this a sewing group or a ladies chat group?? Either way, we had a great time on Nov. 5th sewing our "Days for Girls" kits. Thanks to Laura Karlsen, Leslie Robinson, Kathy DeNofrio, Laurie Zentmyer, Betty Olsen, Theresa Crawford, Janet Fisher, Joyce Kearns, Tricia Wucinski, and Hanne Palmer for joining me at the Giant Community Room to sew. Also a great big Thank You to the Giant Food Store for providing a wonderful work room for us to work in. It was our biggest turn-out so far. If you would like to join our sewing group, email me at [email protected] . You will have a enjoyable time with these wonderful ladies.Our next meeting will be on Nov. 17th at the Giant Food store on Trindle Rd. 10:00 am. Thanks.