Dress Distribution #79 - Christmas Distribution Parcel 1E - for Magalalag Cagayan Philippines

This is the last and final parcel for Christmas distribution and for the year 2014 and most likely the last distribution involving huge quantities of dresses. Parcel 1E of 191 dresses and 15 pairs of shorts and 9 t-shirts for the children of the remote province of Magalalag Enrile Cagayan Philippines c-o Norie Bordador. Due to time constraints, the last few parcels sent have no pictures of the actual parcels sent so I cannot post pictures of the parcels but the postage receipts should be good enough to prove that they were sent.
Here are the contents of Parcel 1E of 191 dresses and 15 shorts and 9 t-shirts -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Kylie Shepherd
2) Yve Weinberg
3) Elaine Klein
4) Monika Osvald
5) Kay Innes and the Golden Girls 2
6) Grace Chilcott and her granddaughter Makayla
7) Jody Clooney
8) Karen Chee
9) Chelsea Oliver
10) Heather Harris
11) Sharyn Cafee
12) Sarah Macraild
13) Andrea McCullagh
14) Nameless Parcel

To see larger images of the contents of the parcel, please click here or on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab at the top of the page at a later stage for feedback distribution.

Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Your kindness and generosity are much appreciated. Thank you.

Dress Distribution #80 - Christmas Bag 2014 Parcel#2 (Morales Compound Pasig Phils)

This is Parcel #2 of Christmas distribution for toddlers for 18 girls and 18 boys of the slum area of the Morales Compound in Pasig Phils c-o Rose Chuidian. All these 36 items have been sponsored by various generous donors who wanted to make more difference this Christmas. They include dresses for girls, tshirts and matching shorts for the boys, undies for boys and girls and small toys.
Here are the contents of the parcel -

sponsored by the following donors -
1) Gaylene Herrmann
2) Pat Burton
3) Marvie Ladera
4) Elaine Klein
5) Maureen O'Brien
6) Virginia Smith
7) Dress A Girl Australia

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab at the top of the page at a later date for feedback distribution.

Again, my heartfelt thank you to the sponsors of this parcel. Your kindness and generosity especially at this Christmas time is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Update on Dress A Girl Australia's 2015 plans

Good Day everyone! Again, in response to heaps of enquiries from school teachers on how they and their students can be involved in the Dress A Girl Around the World charity work. For everyone's info, the first and priority project of Dress A Girl Australia for the year 2015 is to get school teachers/students get involved thru their textile classes. This will complement my other priority project on Education without Borders 2015 for the streetkids of Metro Manila. As to whether I include other country locations on this project's distributions, this will all depend on my financial status in 2015. I will be releasing and publishing a poster and article regarding these 2 back-to-back projects next year (although I have already been collecting school supplies this year for the Education without Borders 2015 project) for more details and information in the next few weeks. Am just about to start taking a break and in the next few days that will include brainstorming so please be patient. More info will be released soon. Thank you and thank you for your understanding.

Dress Distribution #80 - Christmas Bags 2014 Parcel#3 (Slums Phils c-o Rose Chuidian)

This is the third parcel of Dress Distribution #80 of Christmas Bags 2014 for another 37 girls in the slum areas of Metro Manila Philippines between the ages of 1 to 12 c-o Rose Chuidian. This parcel is in addition to the parcel of 67 sponsored dresses and another parcel for the Morales Compound Orphanage which is going to be published separately.
Here are the dresses -

 and here are the donors who made this distribution possible -
1) Sarah Macraild
2) Ketura Whitford (Canberra Grammar School and Canberra Girls Grammar School
3) Teriesa Thomson(Picnic Point High School-NSW) 
4) Nicole Devet
5) Elaine Klein

For larger images of the dresses on this distribution, please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab at a later stage for distribution feedback.

Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. That is another 37 lucky girls this coming Christmas. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. It is much appreciated.

Update on Dress Donations

In response to a lot of enquiries, sorry but I am not accepting dress donations between now and end of March 2015. I am taking a break. 2015 plans will be published soon. I will not be aiming for high numbers next year and financially being realistic I am only looking at around the 1000 dresses mark to distribute for the whole year. The 5-dress/12 for group policy for individual and group donors will be strictly implemented. For those who wants to distribute in huge quantities, I would suggest you get in touch with the official Dress A Girl Around the World campaign in the US for advise. Thank you and thank you for your understanding.

Dress Distribution #82 - Christmas 2014 Sponsored Dresses

This was actually a last-minute decision to set a charity drive for dress sponsorships for Christmas distribution to raise funds for my Dress A Girl Australia well campaign. I raised about $300.00 between the period July to October selling handmade items and instead of donating the money to my Dress A Girl Australia well I used it to pay for the cost of sending 2 parcels of dresses to Kenya last October. Each parcel I think cost me about $154 and $158 each (will have to dig receipts to get the exact amount although they are all posted in my postage album)  even the guy at the postoffice counter asked me where I get the money to pay for it because it was really expensive to send the two parcels. I wanted to collect the money back but because I keep on sending parcels I could not do it. Acting in desperation and 'giving tuesday' was then coming up I decided to run the Dress Sponsorship Charity Drive. It was a hard decision to make since it would involve myself sewing uncertain number of dresses in such a very limited time. Uncertain number since it would depend on who will be applying for sponsorships.This would mean late nights with my sewing machine but it had to be done as I wanted the $300 back.

I only targetted between 25 to 30 sponsorships which I thought was good enough to pay back what I used in my distributions but thanks a lot to a few people who opened up their hearts I was able to collect $670 for 67 sponsorships in 5 days.  I was able to double up the amount I wanted to raise for the Dress A Girl Australia well campaign. As of today I have now raised a total of $2,804.25 to provide clean water and give hope to the people of Kalagi Uganda. I've been a little bit lucky with my ebay selling lately of candlemaking supplies that I do not use anymore so am slowly getting there... hopefully will top the $3000 mark before Christmas and soon will make history.

Here are the 67 dresses sponsored for Christmas distribution. This is Dress Distribution #82 for the children in the slums of Metro Manila.

 For larger images of the sponsored dresses, please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab at a later stage for distribution feedback.

My heartfelt thank you to all the sponsors for their kindness and generosity, for opening their hearts and sharing the spirit of Christmas among these 67 lucky recipients and make them feel special even for a day. Thank you so much.

For those who want to spare a few dollars and make a difference this christmas to provide clean water and give hope to the people of Kalagi Uganda, please click here for the link to my fundraising page. Thank you.

Project Sewing Marathon ended yesterday

I did say last October it will be for the next 3 months but I ended my Project 'Sewing Marathon' yesterday. I have decided to have an early break from distributions now that the Christmas distribution is fully allocated for and posted although I will probably be sewing casually between now and until early April when I open up for Dress A Girl activities again.

As of yesterday, between the period 1-Oct-2014 to 10-Dec-2014 and for 71 days I completed 159 dresses,and 31 pairs of shorts. These dresses included the 67 that were sponsored which I made in 7 days. I also contributed 20 t-shirts to match against the remaining 20 pairs of shorts I made. Not bad for someone who did not do any sewing until the last 3 months of the year. Here are the dresses and pairs of shorts I have made - hopefully they are all in this collage picture.

Now I can proudly say that it was not just sorting and packing that I did this year but I also finished 159 dresses and 31 pairs of shorts in 71 days and made a difference to the lives of 159 girls and 31 boys. To see larger images of the dresses and pairs of shorts, please click here.

I will soon be releasing the final numbers of dresses received and dresses distributed for the year 2014. I would like to say thank you to all the donors of some of the fabric materials I used to complete the project. Thank you. It is much appreciated.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#182 to #184 - From Jody C, Andrea M and a nameless parcel

Finally, the last parcels to be acknowledged for the year 2014 coming from Jody Clooney, Andrea McCullagh and a parcel without a name.
1) Donation #1 is a parcel of 2 dresses and 6 undies from Jody Clooney -

2) Donation #2 is a parcel of 2 dresses but unfortunately the parcel arrived without a sender's name and there was no note inside the parcel -

3) Donation #3 is a parcel of 75 dresses from Andrea McCullagh. Here is a picture of Andrea with the 75 dresses. I have run out of time to take individual pictures as they have to be sorted and packed immediately to be included in the Christmas distribution -

Ladies, thank you for the dresses. Thank you for your kindness and generosity It is much appreciated.

With this last donation acknowledgment for the year 2014, this now closes Dress A Girl Australia's activities for the year 2014. My heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported this campaign the whole year. It is so much appreciated. 

Although there will be a major shakeup/change in the way Dress A Girl Australia's activities will be run in 2015, I hope there will still be a few who would support this campaign. I will still be continuing my work but unfortunately, these changes have to be strictly implemented in order for me to sustain this charity work and I look forward to making a difference with anyone in 2015. Anyone who is truly motivated to make a difference will understand why these changes have to be made. Thank you.

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Whatever good work you do, you’re bound to face problems and obstacles. Therefore, it’s important to check your motivation. It helps to be truthful and honest. If what you do is good for others, it’ll be good for you too. Once you know your goal can be reached, you should try to follow it through to the end. Then, even if you don’t achieve it, at least you’ll have no cause for regret.
  ~ Dalai Lama
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Feedback update re Project Hope Burma Charity Drive

Sharing with everyone (especially to all those who have donated dresses to the Project Hope Burma Charity Drive) a letter from Gitta Clayton, Coordinator in AMES particularly on the Hope Project Burma. My heartfelt thank you to all the donors who made this charity drive such a big success. The letter is quite long so here is the link so everyone can have a read on the whole letter. -

Letter to Gigi from AMES

Below are the links to the articles I have written re contributions made to the Hope Project Burma including donors, link to the albums etc.

1. Article - 4-Aug-2014 - Dress Distribution #73A - For Project Hope Burma Parcel 1

              - 5-Aug-2014 - Fabrics & Other Accessories for Project Hope Burma Parcel 1

              - 15-Aug-2014  -  Dress Distribution #73B - For Project Hope Burma Parcel 2

              - 18-Sep-2014 - Dress Distribution #73C - For Project Hope Burma Parcel 3

              - 24-Oct-2014 - Dress Distribution #73D - For Project Hope Burma for Chin Villages Parcel 4

Thank you everyone for doing such an amazing job of making a difference.

Dress Sponsorships for Christmas Distribution now closed

The dress sponsorships for Christmas distribution is now closed. I have started updating the album with dresses that I have sewn for the 65 sponsorships and have taken over 3 for non-confirmation. Thank you so much to all who sponsored dresses. Your kindness and generosity to make a difference to the lives of 62 disadvantaged kids this Christmas is much appreciated. Thank you.

Here is the link to the album of Dresses Sponsored.

Sponsored Dresses for Christmas 2014

Sponsored Dresses by Bianca Rose

Last night I sew five dresses and made it a little bit more special by adding laces at the hemline for my niece Bianca Rose. She is my ten-year old niece who asked her Dad to give some of her money ($50.00 of toy money I would think) to me so she could sponsor two dresses for two disadvantaged girls this Christmas. And here are the dresses I made for her - she is a very 'girly' girl who likes to wear beautiful dresses and with laces so I think these five dresses really is a good representation of her personality - 

Five dresses for five disadvantaged kids in the slum areas of Metro Manila Philippines this Christmas. Make them feel special even for a day. Biance Rose, thank you so much. Thank you for having such a big heart. 

Dress Sponsorships still going on!

Yes, dress sponsorships is hitting two birds with one stone. A dress for a disadvantaged 6-year old girl and at the same time help build a well for clean water and give hope to the people of Kalagi Uganda. 

To those who have already sponsored dresses, I have processed your contributions to the Dress A Girl Australia campaign for a well and receipts have been emailed to you. Please check your inboxes.
For those who are still pondering, dont delay...this campaign will only run until Friday, 5th of December. There are no more dresses left for sponsorship in the Dress Sponsorship album in my facebook page.
I seem to have a problem coping up with taking pictures of the dresses and posting them in the album but I will try to post a second batch tonight.

If you want to sponsor a dress and only for $10.00, you get to give a new dress and undie, a hair tie, a toy, a magic slate and a 'special person' button this Christmas to one special little girl, please send me a message or fill up the form below and I will allocate one to you. 

Dress Sponsorship Program

Dont forget today is giing tuesday. The best time to share the spirit of Christmas, love, hope and happiness to disadvantaged kids in the slum areas of Metro Manila Philippines (the only location still open for dresses). Thank you.

Parcel feedbacks from India and the Philippines

Between now and perhaps the month of January, probably all I will be doing is wait for messages that parcels have arrived and start ticking my list. Here are two feedbacks from India and the Philippines -
From India - 

From the Philippines - (Parcels sent to Sariaya Quezon Phils that were offloaded early last week)

To translate the non-English part of the message, she is letting me know that she has not opened the boxes yet but will let me know when she has done it.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#181 - From Grace and granddaughter Makayla

This is the second to the last donation acknowledgement for the year 2014. A parcel of 15 dresses from Grace Chilcott and her granddaughter Makayla. Makayla is the leader of her patrol at Guides and she chose to fund raise for this cause and also paid for the cost of sending the dresses from Ulverstone Tasmania to Sydney. This is Makayla - 

and these are the 15 dresses that will be making a difference to the lives of 15 disadvantaged kiddies -

 

To Grace and Makayla, thank you for supporting this campaign of providing dresses to girls in need around the world. Thank you for your kindness and generosity especially to Makayla. You are indeed a good leader and a great motivator and inspiration to children your age. Thank you so much.

Gi♥ing Tuesday

Just one more sleep and it will be 'gi♥ing Tuesday'. A day celebrated by all to give and I hope that a few of you would support Dress A Girl Australia's day of giving. Sponsor a dress and proceeds from the sponsorship will be donated to Dress A Girl Australia's campaign for a well to be built and provide clean water and give hope to the people of Kalagi Uganda. That is hitting two birds with one stone.

Here are a  few of the sponsored bags just waiting to go...too excited for someone to wear and hug. Anyone who is as excited as any of these bags....sponsor a dress and make a difference. Your random act of kindness on 'giing tuesday' for a price of perhaps 5 or 6 cups of coffee to miss in one day or two out of 365 days. Don't be shy. Make 'someone special' this Christmas. 

For $10.00 you get to give a disadvantaged child a new dress, an undie, mini magic slate, hair tie, a toy and a button with the 'special person' message this Christmas. It will be distributed at random in the slum areas of Metro Manila Philippines and make a child feel special this Christmas. To sponsor a dress, please fill up the form below, provide details and submit. You will be replied with a picture of the dress and package and sometime in January or after the holidays, you will be sent a picture of the lucky girl who felt special and hugged by your sponsorship.
Here is the link to the form -

Sponsor a Dress

and you can make payment via paypal to email address dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com or make payment directly to the fundraising page of the Dress A Girl Australia well. You will have to let me know then that you made a payment using the fundraising page so I can allocate a dress/package for you. It gives you a receipt for the donation you made -
Here is the link to Dress A Girl Australia's fundraising page.

Dress A Girl Australia well for clean water

This campaign will be running starting tomorrow,Tuesday, 2nd of December until Friday, 5th of December only. All packages will start its journey to the Philippines by Sunday, 7th of December. So join me in this celebration and make someone special this Christmas. Thank you.

Feedback Distribution - c/o Mercy & Grace Orphanage - India - 01-Dec-2014

Sharing a few pictures received from Nirmala Kumari of Mercy & Grace Orphanage, India -

For more pictures on distributions in India (Mercy & Grace), please click here.

Thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#179 & #180 - From the Golden Girls 2 and Karen C.

Two parcels still to be acknowledged coming from Karen Chee and the Golden Girls 2 -
1) Donation #179 is a parcel of 13 dresses, soft toys and fabric bags from the Golden Girls 2 - Kay Innes, Betty Higgins, Julie May and Pauline Charlston -

2) Donation #180 is a parcel of 20 dresses from Karen Chee and hair ties which were acknowledged separately -

Thank you to the Golden Girls 2 and Karen for their kindness and generosity. Thank you. Much appreciated.

Fundraising Drive : Hair Ties for Sale

Looking for practical items to give as presents this Christmas ? Looking for a way to make a difference this Christmas? Another way of hitting two birds with one stone. Good quality hair ties at a low price to give as a present and at the same time making a difference to a life of a disadvantaged child. Proceeds from the sale of these items will be donated to the postage fund of Dress A Girl Australia to help pay for the cost of sending dresses to any disadvantaged location anywhere in the world. These items were donated by Karen Chee to help raise funds for postage.

Now available at Dress A Girl Australia's on-line shop, these hair ties are selling for $2.00 each plus postage cost of $1.80. Note that prices in the shop are inclusive of postage costs. To check them out, please click here or click on the image above.

Please help spread the word around. Thank you.