Lost and finally found t-shirts

This is a good sign that I am almost done in my tasks (with only 4 days left in January) and looking forward to a good 2 months rest and possibly spend time crafting and/or sewing dresses . Why do I say am almost done? Well, a few days before Christmas when I was on the final stages of packing the Christmas Bags, I got short of 2 t-shirts. I needed 50 and I only had 48. Instead of buying just 2 I went to purchase 10 just in case I miscounted. I knew I packed the 2 but I could not find the other 8. Finally I gave up thinking that I must have included it in one of the parcels. Guess what, yesterday I found the 8 t-shirts when I was finalizing my packing for Kenya and Malabon Phils. It was squeezed in between the dresses, hidden so well (probably gasping for breath under the piles of dresses) and the only way you can find it is if all dresses are gone.

So finally, am able to post the picture of the 10-tshirts which I took before I packed 2 of them for the Christmas bags.

Whew! What a relief that I found the pack although if they were inadvertently included in the Christmas bags, it would still be ok because then I would have provided t-shirts to 58 boys instead of just 50. At least I know now that I didnt make the mistake of throwing it away in the bin. :-)

Dress Distribution #51 - Children of Miwani Kenya (c/o Pastor Joshua Atieno) Parcel 1A

This is Dress Distribution #51 and the first parcel of two for the children of Miwani Kenya. This parcel of 62 dresses, bibs and undies will be sent to Pastor Joshua Atieno who is the head of the Widows of Africa Ministry in Kenya. Pastor Joshua sometimes travel to Rwanda to visit his ministry so a few of these dresses might end up for the children in Rwanda.
Here is the parcel which will be sent next weekend to get there in time for Easter-

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Heidi McKellar and the 1st Bardon Brownies
2) Monika Osvald
3) Lyn Granger
4) Sarah Tanmahapran
5) Pam of Threading my way
6) Ladies of Kapunda Sewing group
7) Sarah Vaughan
8) Pat Pynn
9) Linda Smyth
10) Beryl Hourigan, Marilyn Jenkins, Marie Dale, Kate Hardy and Terrie Ross
11) Christie Sturre
12) Wendy Yates
13) Katherine Nott
14) Sue Ellen Cox
15) Helen Fletcher
16) Deborah Parish
16) Anonymous Donor

Undies were included in this parcel donated by the Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Group and 2 out of 62 dresses  cannot be identified. If these dresses happen to be yours , let me know.

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distributions (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you so much to all the donors who made this parcel possible. Thank you for sharing your money for the materials, time and effort in making these dresses for the less fortunate children in Miwani Kenya . Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated. Thank you.

If you feel the need to enquire about this distribution, please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/1 #2 - 26 dresses from the Bardon Brownies

This is Donation Acknowledgement #2 - the second exception. A parcel of 26 dresses made by the Bardon Brownies under the guidance of Heidi McKellar. Not sure why I miss this as I am always excited when donations are made by kids, kids helping their less fortunate counterparts. When I did a review today of all the forms I received the past 2 weeks (normally I do not review forms but I did one today for some reason) I found one submission from Heidi McKellar. On the form she wrote that she was sending 26 dresses made by the 1st Bardon Brownies. Girls aged 7-10 years old and further said "Thank you for doing what you are doing and giving everyone the inspiration to help others!". I remembered one of the parcels I picked up last week was from her so I immediately located the parcel, opened it and this is what I found inside the parcel. The Bardon Brownies with the dresses they made. Amazing! 

and these are the 26 dresses they made and some of them have not even done sewing before -

Awesome kids for an awesome world! Kids joining Dress A Girl Australia in shaking for a better world in 2014. It is such a nice feeling when you see your hard work triggering others to do the same to make this world a better place. 

Thank you so much to all the 1st Bardon Brownies and to Heidi McKellar for organizing and guiding these little kids to appreciate what they have and share with their less fortunate counterparts. It is so much appreciated. Thank you.

In appreciation for what these brownies did, I am including these 26 dresses in my parcel to Kenya for the little Kenyans to own which I am sending next weekend. Thank you so much.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/1 #1 - Beanies from Gaylene

I am making a couple of exceptions on donation acknowledgements (official start is still in April) because I need the items that have been donated. Donation #1 is from Gaylene Herrmann which is a pack of 7 beanies. These beanies I will be allocating to the Winter Appeal for South Africa where winter sets donated needs a beanie.
Here are the 7 beanies from Gaylene -

Two of these have already been allocated to the two winter sets I have donated (one green and one blue). I do not know how to knit so I definitely cannot make a beanie. LOL! There are five more left to be allocated.

To Gaylene, thank you so much for the beanies. So handy in the winter appeal program. Much, much appreciated.

Feedback on Distribution by the RVM sisters of CDO Philippines

As I have written earlier that two of the parcels I sent last December to CDO Philippines which had 63 dresses, 20 pairs of shorts, books and school supplies were donated to Lourdes University who has about three adopted communities in the region. I was looking at an attachment sent to me by my friend Ana who made the actual delivery of the parcels to the RVM sisters when I noticed a dress worn by one of the kids. It was so small because it was in a collage format but I thought the dress was familiar. So I sent her another message asking if she could send a bigger image and indeed she had pictures but is so busy she can not find the time to send and has to send it in batches as she cannot send in bulk. She is a teacher so her hands are full but she sent me two last night and this is one of them. 

The distribution was done in Balulang Elementary School, a school adopted by the nuns of Lourdes College to help kids in the community get an education and the few dresses you see in this picture came from the 63 dresses that I donated to the school last Dec and where am still having a headache trying to reconstruct the donors. Look at how behave these kids are, sitting down waiting for further instructions. :-)

When I receive more pictures I will post them here. By the way, the child in the middle is wearing a dress donated by Gaylene Herrmann, the dress I recognized in the very small picture pasted in the attachment which was in collage format.

What's Up this week - Dress A Girl Australia

In my 2014 calendar of events where I listed important dates to follow regarding Dress A Girl Australia's activities for the year, I also mentioned that this is going to be my travel year. One of my trips which is going to be in the middle of this year is our trip to Lima Peru. A few more parcels to pack, some to be sent in the next few weeks as allocated (and the rest of the parcels until I get to raise enough postage money again) I am excited I can go back to sewing again.  I intend to sew at least 75 dresses between now and June to handcarry with me when I go to Lima Peru in July.

Lots of thanks to Suzanne Schenk Lofgren and Rachel Eggum Cinader of Hope-4-Women International for helping in finding a contact for me in Peru. I do not believe I will be able to make the actual distribution of dresses but at least there is someone who can probably do it on my behalf. More details on this as the event draws nearer. 

Here is a snapshot of a few Little Peruvians that I hope will be one of the few recipients of the dresses in a few months time.

I will only be handcarrying dresses made by me and possibly by my sisters from the fabric materials donated to me by a few ladies last year which I never had the chance to make into dresses due to a tight schedule. I hope to reach my goal of 75. Whatever the number I am able to sew I will handcarry them.

Feedback on Unaccompanied Baggage Trial

The parcels have arrived in Johannesburg last week (21st of Jan). Here is a snapshot of Joan Adams email

I think R235.00 is equivalent to AUD$25.00 which is much lower than what I expected and what I was told here in Sydney. She must have been given a discount too. So happy!!!

Information on the Winter Appeal for South Africa

This year is going to be an awesome year and the first drive that will contribute to a 2014 awesome year is the winter appeal for the children of South Africa . I wish I could raise more but due to parcel constraints, at this time I am only raising winter clothing for 40 children.  I may add more depending on weight and space availability so it is very important that the guidelines on what to contribute is followed. These requirements have been set up to comply or make sure that I meet the foundation’s requirements of their clothing sponsorship program.

What is required from donors - For every child, there should be
(1) one closed-neck long-sleeved cotton t-shirt
(2) one winter singlet
(3) one cotton pants or fleece pants
(4) one pair of winter socks
(5) one beanie 

I am setting a limit of one donor-one child to give chance to others who may want to contribute. If you cannot provide the whole set, please identify what you can donate by ticking the box in the form of the item that you can contribute . Any missing item will be sourced from other donors. (i.e. Beanies, I currently have 10 beanies on hand). 

The clothing materials need to be brand new. Used clothing will not be included in any of the parcels. The foundation has a ‘hand-me-down’ policy for the clothes. If a kid who is 5 years old outgrows his allocation, if the clothing items are still wearable it is handed down to another 5 year old who needs a new allocation and the previous owner gets allocated a new set based on his new size. So it is very important that the items are durable and new so it would last longer.

The winter parcel needs to leave Australia by mid-of May so I am looking at early or mid-March to have all contributions already on its way to Sydney. Confirmation of parcel due date will be advised once I have the numbers of contributions confirmed.

Here is the link to the form where you can provide your details and intention to help keep at least 40 children in South Africa warm this winter -

Winter Appeal for South Africa

Thank you all for your kindness and generosity!

If anyone has a question(s), please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com.

Dress Distribution #53 - Children of Navotas Manila (c/o Norie Bordador)

This is unscheduled distribution parcel #2 of 3 which I mentioned earlier for the children of the Philippines in particular the children from Navotas Metro Manila. Parcels sent to Norie Bordador who will be organizing and coordinating distribution with a group of missionaries and volunteers in the community. Once I have received the details of where the actual distribution has been done (i.e. location, school etc) I will give an update.  Just wanted to post the details of donors in advance to tick off the task from my to-do list. Am glad I got the chance to do 3 more unscheduled distributions as I get to clear mostly small dress sizes.
Here are the two parcels of 161 dresses -

and here are the contents of the two parcels made possible by the donors following the images. Again, I have splitted them into two batches to make it easier for me to identify the donors.
Parcel 1 contents -

made possible by the following donors -

1) Canungra Circle of Friends Qld

2) Linda Smyth

3) Gaylene Herrmann

4) Jane Kelly, Marieka Ashmore and Liz Skinner of Coffs Harbour

5) Sharyn Paull

6) Betty Barrett & Betty Paull

7) Laurel Murphy

8) Leonie Harrison

9) heyboom

10) Flor dela Cruz

11) Louise Wright

12) Sash Hinton

13) Kaylee Healy

14) Debbie Nikolic and friend Wanda and sewn by Heather Harris

15) Beryl Hourigan, Marilyn Jenkins, Marie Dale, Kate Hardy and Terrie Ross

16) Pat Pynn

17) Sarah Vaughan

18) Melissa Delaware

19) Anonymous Donor

20) Dress A Girl Australia

Parcel 2 contents -

made possible by the following donors -

1) The Sewing Library facebook group

2) Nicole Devet

3) Karen Interlandi

4) Linda Smyth

5) Flor dela Cruz

6) Mila Elloso

7) Sandra Lew

8) Heather Harris

9) Bethany Greenaway

10) Sarah Tanmahapran

11) Di Menzel

12) Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Group

13) Beryl Hourigan, Marilyn Jenkins, Marie Dale, Kate Hardy and Terrie Ross 

14) Pam of Threading My Way

15) Evelyn Smart, Colleen Barry, Veronica Tooey

16) Dress A Girl Australia

No undies on these distributions and donor(s) of 2 of the dresses out of 161 cannot be identified. If these dressses happen to be yours, let me know.

To see larger images of the contents of the two parcels, please click here. For more details on these distributions (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you so much to all the donors who made these two parcels possible. Thank you for sharing your money for the materials, time and effort in making these dresses for the less fortunate children in the Navotas area of the Philippines. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated. Thank you.

If you feel the need to enquire about this distribution, please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Thank you.

9 Boxes of Unidentified Donors

These are the parcels all nine of them that is giving me a headache these days as I cannot find the paper where I wrote the names of donors whose dresses were inside these parcels. I packed these parcels in record 3 nights up to 2am and woke up very early the following morning to bring these boxes to my sister's house where it was going to be picked up since I had to go to work just so I could send it in time for Christmas. These 9 boxes were sent to CDO Philippines last December. Seven of them were for the Christmas bags and two were given as gifts to a school I went to in my elementary days to distribute to the children of the community they have adopted. On these boxes were 213 dresses, 70 pairs of shorts, 50 t-shirts, christmas bags, toys, undies and bras, headscarves, hairties, books and school supplies.

The seven parcels containing the Christmas bags of 150 dresses, 50 pairs of shorts, 50 t-shirts, undies, toys, headscarves and hairties have definitely been distributed from the couple of pictures I have posted. I do have more pictures still to be posted when I get the chance as I still am very busy sorting and packing. The 7 parcels were received by my Aunt Emma and my niece Sharon who did the distributions. Sharon is a doctor who used to work for the Philippine Red Cross and is now back to field work as a doctor and is visiting hinterland areas, remote areas as a doctor and where only doctors dare to go. I will be sending her more dresses before Easter to distribute to the children in the remote areas while treating them, children who probably have not seen the city, never owned a new dress nor owned a toy. She looks forward to the parcels I will be sending her and is excited to make the distribution.

The other two parcels were received by the president of Lourdes College (now a university) Sister Maria Nora R Joson , RVM* and Ms Myrna Fantonalgo the Vice President, Administration of the university. The boxes were delivered to them by my good friend Ana dela Fuente who is also a member of the Zonta Ladies International CDO Chapter. The feedback I got was that they were very happy and thrilled to receive the boxes of 63 dresses, 20 pairs of shorts, bras and undies, books and school supplies as they have never received gifts of this kind before. I am waiting for the pictures that they have taken plus the certificate of appreciation for the donation. The items were to be distributed to two very depressed communities in the area that they have adopted so the children in the communities can go to school. I hope I would be able to raise more books and school supplies to send to them sometime this year.

Now back to the donors, I will try to reconstruct the contents of these nine parcels (rest be assured that I have sent these packages and in fact I paid $336.00 for these parcels to get to them in December. Link to the docket you will find in the Dress distribution page). I dont like mentioning how much postage was paid but with the number of emails I have been getting asking if dresses have been distributed I have no choice. I wish people are a bit more understanding and show some compassion instead of asking if their dresses have been distributed.

Am sure I will be able to reconstruct but will take time. So donors who are still wondering and sending me emails asking if their dresses have already been distributed, your dresses could be in one of these nine parcels (except dresses I received between the October to December timeframe). The donors names will be posted as soon as I have completed the reconstruction.


*RVM stands for Religious of the Virgin Mary

Important Info on Dress Materials to use

It is time to remind everyone again that when making dresses to donate to Dress A Girl Australia to please make sure that you use cotton materials or fabrics that are sturdy enough to withstand washing in rivers, using stones to wash away dirt etc. Materials should not be flimsy or so thin that you can actually see your hand behind the material. 

Effective immediately, any dresses donated that do not meet these simple guidelines will not be included in any distributions and the donor will be contacted if contact details are available so please make sure that your contact details are also included in your parcels. Thank you.

2014 Calendar for Dress A Girl Australia

In order to improve and become more effective on this campaign and taking into consideration work and family and avoid inconveniences and burn-outs, I have decided to come up with a 2014 calendar for Dress A Girl (Around the World) Australia and share with everyone.  Any changes to the calendar schedule below will be entirely within my discretion. Also, this year is my travel year so I thought I should also share with you the dates that most likely I will be out of the country and possibly not contactable at all for Dress A Girl Australia activities.

2014 Calendar

Jan 2014 - Clearing up 2013 dresses

Feb 1 - Apr 6 - No scheduled activities for Dress A Girl Australia. Emails and enquiries will be responded to whenever required.

Apr 7 - Dress A Girl Australia open for 2014 events and activities

Apr 7 - Apr 16 - Start of 2014 Donation acknowledgements

Apr 17 - Apr 30 - No scheduled activities for Dress A Girl Australia (Will be out of the country. Emails will be responded to if needed based on connection availability)

May 1 - Jul 6 - Resume activities for Dress A Girl Australia

July 7 - 27 - No scheduled activities for Dress A Girl Australia (Will be out of the country and possibility of getting internet connectivity is very slim)

July 28 - Sept 14 - Resume activities for Dress A Girl Australia

Sep 15 - Sept 21 - No scheduled activities for Dress A Girl Australia (will be out of the country. Emails will be responded to if needed based on connection availability)

Sep 22 - Dec 21 - Resume activities for Dress A Girl Australia

Dec 22 - 26 - Christmas Break 

Dec 27 - Dec 30 - catch up on activities for Dress A Girl Australia

Dec 31 - Jan 4 - New Year's Break

Dress A Girl Australia activities could include planning, donation acknowledgements, sorting, packing, organizing, coordinating, parcel follow-ups, sending of parcels, charity drives, making handmades and selling at markets to raise funds for postage and of course do my own sewing of dresses.

Please note that my full-time job from Mon to Fri (8-5pm) is still a priority and that I have committed the number of hours below to this campaign to keep it going. Any extra hours I spend in addition to the committed hours below will be based entirely within my discretion :

   Weekdays after work hours - 2 to 3 hours

   Weekends between 5 to 6 hours.

Parcel pickups will be scheduled on Saturday mornings except on Saturdays that I am away or not available due to market schedules. And all pickups will be done from my postbox number in Casula. No special pickups from other locations. Drop-offs will be allowed but has to be pre-arranged and does not require my presence during drop-off.

Please be guided with this information to avoid inconveniences. Thank you.

2014 activities start in April

In response to an email I received, there is no deadline to meet on the submission of dresses. There is even no need to hurry to send your dresses to me especially that I am not doing any distributions until April. When I say April distribution it does not mean that all dresses will be sent in April. It will only be in April that I will start to think where to send the dresses, which dresses to include etc. As I have said it takes a lot of time to prepare and organize for these dresses to be distributed and for 2014 I will only start the process in April. Thank you.

Feedback from Mercy & Grace Charity India on Dresses sent #2

I received these pictures yesterday from Mercy & Grace Charity of Mrs Nirmala Kumari upon receipt of the parcel I sent. She will be distributing the dresses to the children in the orphanage and schools in remote rural areas. 

I cannot wait to send the second parcel I have already packed for her.

Dress A Girl Australia Well for clean water update and others

I am now below $10,000 on the Dress A Girl Australia fundraising campaign for a clean water for the people of Kalagi Uganda. I have raised $609 so far. It is still a very,very,very long way to reaching the goal but it is moving through the help of friends and I hope to spend more time on this project for the next two months. Thank you to those who have donated so far. I really appreciate it.

Except for the parcels that I am sending in the next two weeks, I am still sticking to my plan of no new distributions until I start 2014 activities in April. I am still sticking to the plan I had last year where no dresses received in October to December will be distributed until I restart in April unless sizes are needed. This is in reply to a few emails I have received asking how come their dresses have not been distributed yet. Please note that it is not just a matter of sending off the dresses once I receive your donations. It takes a lot of time, effort, money, sizing, weighing of parcels, coordination, communication and organization between myself and the recipients before the parcels are actually sent and I really hope some donors do understand this. 

I am still sticking to my plan of having a rest from Dress A Girl Australia activities between now and April. I still have my left arm to take care of which got hurt in one of the parcels sent to me last year weighing more than 5 kilos. And I am still sticking to what I have said earlier that parcels should be packed in kilos of 5 or less. I have not been getting a good feedback (a few unwanted emails received) since I imposed this maximum limit of kilos on parcels. I just want everyone to know that I love what I am doing and the only way I can keep on doing this is if I am fit and dont get hurt so I need to look after myself as well. Even if it is my choice to do all of this for free, I also have the choice of not getting hurt while doing what I like to do and so I try to find ways of avoiding injuries or inconveniences to happen. I try to find ways on how to improve this campaign. If anyone is unhappy with what I am doing, then what can I do.

Donation acknowledgements will resume when I resume 2014 Dress A Girl Australia activities in April.

Thank you.

Yarn Bombing

I went to Melbourne this morning so I could watch the matinee show of the King Kong musical which is ending in 2 weeks time. While waiting for the start of the musical I decided to walk around Federation Square and wondered why the tree trunks seemed to be very colourful. I went to where the trees were and that is when I saw yarn bombing. I have read about this being done in several parts of the USA and one or two in Australia but I have never really seen it happening or seen what it looks like until today.

Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. Here are some pictures of the Yarn bombing at Federation Square at Cnr Flinders Street & Swanston Street, Melbourne. 

I love it. Maybe I should do one in my frontyard. At least I would not need council approval as it is inside my block of land. :-) Maybe...start with prayer flags? This would be a great thing to do. By the way, the King Kong musical was absolutely awesome. Mind-blowing production. The one-day trip was very worth it.

Dress Distribution #50 - Children of India c/o Garden of Life Parcel 2

This is another parcel of 65 dresses for the children of India c/o The Garden of Life. Again, this parcel will be put on hold until such time that the Kenya parcels have been sent. There are 65 dresses in the parcel but for some reason I only find 63 in the album. I can no longer identify the 2 missing pictures as the box is sealed.
Here is the parcel -

here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors : 
1) Ladies of Kapunda Sewing Group
2) Sarah Tanmahapran
3) Cassie Ashley for Rachel Platt
4) Katherine Nott
5) Maureen O'Brien
6) Linda Smyth
7) Sarah Vaughan
8) Narelle Cox
9) T-shirts for the skirts provided by Dress A Girl Australia

No undies on this distribution and donor of 3 dresses cannot be identified. Am pretty sure there is only one donor to these 3 as the fabric material used is the same. If you happen to be the owner of the 3 unidentified dresses, let me know.

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on these distributions (and also at a later stage when feedback is received) please click here or click on the special 'Dress Distribution' tab which you can find at the top of this page.

Thank you so much to all the donors who made this parcel possible. Thank you for the time, money, materials and effort in making these dresses for the less fortunate children of India. Your kindness and generosity is very much appreciated. Thank you.
If you feel the need to enquire about this distribution, please feel free to send an email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. Thank you.

Feedback from Mercy & Grace Charity India on Dresses sent

Feedback from Mercy & Grace Charity India. Dresses have been received. A little patience and you might see some of your dresses worn by the kids next week. Thank you.

For a larger or readable version of this email, please click here.