Raising Up Our Sisters
Providing women and girls in developing nations education, life skills, period supplies and opportunities to earn an income has a profound positive ripple effect on our planet. There’s a plethora of studies that show it decreases war, drugs, crime and birth rates across the world. It increases quality of life for EVERYONE including children and men. And it’s on the list of the top 10 things that help with climate change!
Here at The Baa Foundation we’re currently doing two major initiatives to raise up our sisters in a rural but populated village in India – Saoli Sadoba, India.
#1 Life & Career Skills and Personal Development
in the Schools
We’re providing several different programs in the schools to help each girl break the cycle of poverty in her family, to decrease the chances she gets married off at an early age and forced into having babies, to prevent domestic abuse, to decrease the total amount of children she has in her lifetime, and to dramatically increase her quality of life. To donate to this initiative, click here.
#2 Period Kits
A major issue for young women is not having the supplies or education necessary to properly manage their periods and as a result, they miss a significant amount of school which has a profound negative ripple effect.
With the generous efforts of professional sewists – LIKE YOU!! – and other donors and volunteers, we’re working on a both short-term and a long-term solution.
The short-term solution includes distributing a period kit to each girl in school who has her period (about 1,000 period kits in total). The kits include 6 reusable pads and a special carry- bag to the girls in school.
The long-term solution includes providing the schools a professional sewing pattern, sewing training, sewing machines, and a self-sustaining source of supplies so that the girls can sew their own period kits (we’re estimating each kit will last 2-3 years and at least 200 girls get their periods each year in this village).
Also, as part of the long-term solution, we’re helping a group of women living in the village who need an income, to open a business making these period kits and selling them to the women and girls in the village who can afford to buy them, and to surrounding villages that are more likely to have the financial means to purchase the period kits. Currently, all women and girls in this village and the surrounding villages are simply using whatever cloth they can find which is messy, smells bad and is difficult to clean and dry.
This will provide a stable income to these women and provide a much needed product to this village and surrounding villages. A portion of the proceeds from this business will go to supply materials to the schools so that the girls who cannot afford to purchase period kits (which is most of the girls) will have the materials and instructions they need to make their own kit in school. Also, for every 10 kits that this business sells, they will donate a kit to a local school so that the school always has some kits on hand to distribute to girls in urgent need.
We Need Your Help!
We’re on a mission to collect at least 1,000 Period Kits by Thanksgiving 2019 to take to India and distribute in the schools! Each kit will include 6 pads and 1 leak-proof carry bag (so we’re collecting a minimum of 6,000 pads and 1,000 bags).
If you’re able to sew, please consider making some pads and/or bags and sending them to a collection site in Pennsylvania so that Raziya can take them to India.
If you want to review the pattern and tutorials, please click here.
Here’s How It Works
A very generous professional sewist, Rachel Nelson, created a professional, easy-to-use pattern along with step-by-step instructions and a materials list for reusable pads, and we’ve provided a step-by-step, easy to follow video tutorial for a special 2-pocket leak proof bag that carries both clean and used pads.
Many girls have to travel a distance to school, often by foot, and need to be able to get through a long day with their pads and bring home their used pads so they can hand wash them at night before they go to bed so having these special carry-bags is important.
Rachel teamed up with another generous volunteer, Kristy Kaufer, to research the best fabrics and type of period pads that can be hand washed, dry quickly despite the heat, and that don’t carry a smell.
If you can commit to making some pads and/or bags, simply fill out the form below letting us know that you’re up for helping out!
These are VERY easy pads and bags to make and you don’t need to be a professional sewist or have experience to do it, we’ll provide you step-by-step instructions (you do of course need to have sewing skills and a sewing machine). You’ll need to purchase the materials for the kits you make but we’ll provide you a list of recommended materials.
As soon as you submit the form below you’ll be taken to a page with instructions on how to make the pads and bags.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at TheBAAFoundation@gmail.com.
After you make some pads and/or bags, just mail them to our collection site in Pennsylvania (the address is on the instructions page).
And that’s it! You will have done a HUGE service to our fellow sisters across the planet.
How Many Pads and/or Bags Can You Commit To Making
Thank You for Your Help & Support!!
Your services will make a significant impact that will have a profound positive ripple effect. For more details about The Baa Foundation, our other initiatives, and our founder and president, Raziya Shroff, click here.