Dress Distribution with Zonta Ladies, CDO Chapter

Monday afternoon, the 26th of Sept 2011, I finally made it to Cagayan de Oro City (southern part of the Philippines) after 1-1/2 hours travelling by plane where I wanted to personally experience distributing dresses to girls and women of the area that was particularly selected for this occasion. The place was called Mambuaya and about half-an-hour from the city by car. As we got nearer the place, the ride was becoming bumpier as the road was not made of asphalt nor cemented. The distribution happened in a small day care center of about 25 children but half of them were boys. These little boys were watching on the sides when the little girls were being dressed but they never complained that they did not get one for themselves. When word got around that there were dresses being given to small girls, several mothers (or nanays as they are called in the local dialect) living near the daycare center came with their children tagged along.

Together with the Zonta* ladies of the city, it was such a great experience that coming back to Sydney made me more determined to make and collect as many dresses as I can to give to the children and women of this beloved city. I have also decided that from now on to include trousers or long shorts in my campaign for the little boys as they too deserve to own one. I know that this campaign is called Dress A Girl Around the World but after seeing the little boys during the distribution just watching their small friends being dressed I thought they should also receive one for themselves. In places or areas like this and sometimes not easily reachable unless you know someone or a group who knows how to get to these places (and many thanks to the Zonta ladies!) and safely of course, not only the little girls or teen girls need to be dressed but also the little boys. In fact, even the mothers or the nanays deserved them too. You should check out the very big smile on the face of the teacher when she knew that she was getting one as well. Luckily I had one dress which I thought would fit her and gave it to her for a job very well done in patiently making sure these children get to learn and get educated for their future. As the saying goes, these children are our future.

After all the girls were completely dressed we still had a few left and these were bigger in sizes. We saw that the dresses would fit several of the mothers or the 'nanays', so we gave it to them and asked them to wear it and this brought smiles on their faces too. I didnt have the heart to say 'no' when they asked if they could also have one.

 More pictures from this distribution are available for everyone to see on the right navigation bar under 'Dress A Girl Australia Sep 2011 Distribution - CDO Phils'. I think I have uploaded all the pictures taken from this distribution area. Have a look and see if any of the dresses were made by you. You should be proud the way I felt very proud dressing these girls, teacher and nanays. Without you and everyone who contributed to this campaign, this Dress A Girl event would'nt have happened. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making these girls and women own at least one dress for they all deserve one.

The Zonta ladies I was lucky enough to have the chance to work with in this distribution were members of the Zonta International, Cagayan de Oro City Chapter, Philippines and I hope to continue on with this work and perhaps other projects I have in mind in partnership with them in the future. Thank you to Delsa Mortola, Sol Marie Ucab and Ana Marie dela Fuente and a special thanks to Ana Marie for coordinating and making sure this event happened on the 27th of Sept 2011.

**** Zonta International founded in 1919 is a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.

If you like what you see and would like to join Dress A Girl Australia's campaign to dress girls around the world, please send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.