New Charity Drive for kids in Uganda Sizes 14,15,16

Tonight I am starting another Charity Drive for dresses between the sizes of 14, 15 and 16 for the kids of Uganda (Destiny Faith Ministries). The standard pillowcase dresses will be great for this collection. Delivery date for these dresses is end of September so that means all dresses will have to be in by the first week of September for sorting and packing. If there is anyone who would like to donate for these sizes, please send me a message or email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com so I will have an idea as to how many I can raise. This is another great opportunity for anyone who wants to make a difference. Thank you so much.

Due to the tight schedule of this particular drive, I cannot say at this time how much I am committing to this collection but will do my best to raise as many dresses as I can.

Just a friendly reminder to anyone who wants to donate, that these dresses are going to be given to dark-skinned kiddies so thin and flimsy materials are a big no-no. The kids are tall and thin so please be generous with your lengths.Thank you.

More T-shirts/Pairs of Shorts sets for Project Hope Burma Drive

These matching sets of t-shirts and pairs of shorts have been added to the Project Hope Burma Charity drive Parcel 2 bringing my total of t-shirts and pairs of shorts to 31 each. Dresses is 51.

Donors of items as follows -  
1) T-shirts by Monika Osvald
2) Pairs of shorts by Kim Foster(sewn by Dress A Girl Australia), Inspired Peel Sewers and Ladies of Kapunda sewing group. 

Thank you to the donors for making this possible. For the latest images on clothing allocated to the Project Hope Burma Charity Drive, please click here.

Machu Picchu Adventure Pictures

For a change I thought I would share a few pictures taken from my recent Machu Picchu adventure instead of dresses and/or pairs of shorts or undies (haha). Since we came back to Sydney, I havent seen any of the trekkers as most of them had to immediately go back to work so we still have not exchanged pictures yet. It was my brother and my niece who did a lot of picture taking.

Anyway, here are a few magical images at the border of the Inca Trail. The 6 brave members of the Sun clan who chose to hike to get to Machu Picchu. On Day 4, we met with the rest of the members of the group at Machu Picchu. These are the ones who took the train like my sister and his son who could no longer get a ticket to the hike since tickets were no longer available since Feb and we bought our tickets in January.
A pose at the entry of the Inka trail Km 82 -

While waiting for our passes to be approved to enter the bridge -

This is the Inca Bridge. The start of the uphill climb which you see on the left side. We climbed as high as 4,200m. And once we made it, the porters were there to clap their hands of our achievements. Once you crossed this bridge there is no turning back. 

This is the view from the bridge. On the right side is the train track if you are taking the train which is about 3 hours ride to the Machu Picchu train station and another half-an hour ride by bus to get to the archaeological sites. 

Another magical view from the starting point of the Inca Hike.

One of the highlights of the Inca Trail Hike are the porters who carry duffel bags weighing at least 25 kilos of personal belongings, food etc to make the hikers comfortable when they reached their base camps at night. You cant help but show your appreciation and respect at what they can do.

This is the picture of me and my sister with the porters who were assigned by the guide on Day 3 to help us balance ourselves on the uphill and downhill paths especially on the very rocky areas and in paths where only one person can walk and if you look down it was quite scary. There are supposed to be 4 of them but one seems to be missing from the picture. Or was it him taking the picture? hahah! The porters were very nice and used to helping people. the only thing is that you have to remind them not to walk fast or run as it was quite difficult to catch up with their pace. I had to use whatever Spanish I could muster from my brain so we could understand each other. Whenever we reach a spot, the porters would clap their hands that we made it. was so funny. They were always ahead of us to make sure that we were comfortable when we get to the lunch site or camp site. There were 6 of us trekking and we had 1 guide, 2 chefs and 11 porters.

The Peruvian kid I adopted before I flew back to Sydney - Her name is Nusta Amaru Allcca, born in Quechua Cusco on April 11, 2008. Nusta means princess.

also with a load on her back

I hope to be able to share more pictures on this site of our adventure. On the 15th of August is my Dad's 7th death anniversary. We will be having a family gathering so by that time I would be able to collect more pictures to share.

6 Pairs of Shorts tonight

I thought I would do something different tonight and this is what I ended up with. Six pairs of shorts. Two are completely finished while the other 4 will have their elastics done tomorrow. When the elastics are done, I will match them with the t-shirts sewn by Monika Osvald. The fabrics were donated by Kim Foster.

Also, here are the girls' undies I purchased last Sunday @$3.00 per pack - I think there are 36 of them but I have allocated 12pcs for the Project Hope Burma Drive specifically for the Pitaka Primary kids.

Now let us see what I will accomplished tomorrow.

Thank you letter from Childhope Asia Philippines

I received this thank you letter today from the President of Childhope Asia Philippines and again sharing it with you especially to all the donors of the dresses, t-shirts/pairs of shorts matching sets.
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From: Childhope Asia Philippines [mailto:childhopeasia@yahoo.com]

Sent: Tuesday, 5 August 2014 12:16 PM

To: Gigi Sun

Subject: thank you

MS. GIGI SUN

Founder

Dress A Girl Australia

Dear Ms. Sun,

Warm greetings from Childhope!

We wish to thank you for your donation of assorted clothes which we received last June 20 here in our office. The items you donated will be distributed among our street children participants from different areas all over Metro Manila. We are truly very grateful to you for sharing your blessings with our street children participants who are in most difficult situations of poverty.

Please accept our apology as well for the delay in acknowledging receipt of your donation since the staff in charge of your donation attended a one-month training and was able to attend to your package only last week.

Again, thank you very much for your support and we hope to share more years of rewarding experiences with you. May God continue to inspire you in helping to uplift the situation of our street children. God bless you and your family abundantly.

Sincerely yours,

Ms. Teresita L. Silva, MSW

President and Executive Director

CHILDHOPE ASIA PHILIPPINES, INC.

A child's hope is in your hands!

1210 Peñafrancia St., Paco Extension,

1007 Manila Philippines

http://www.hope.org.ph

Telephone Nos. +632-5617118 / +632-5634647

Fax No. +632-5632242

*Finalist, 2011 STARS Impact Awards (UK) for Asia PacificRegion, Health Category

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Once again, thank you to all the donors who made this distribution possible for the streetkids of Metro Manila. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated.

Fabrics & Other Accessories for Project Hope Burma Parcel 1

Am sending another parcel to the Croydon Hills Baptist Church (c-o Kathy Thompson) tomorrow and this time containing about 12 kilos worth of fabric materials to be made into dresses and/or pairs of shorts, elastics for both dresses and pairs of shorts. I also found 2 small boxes of sewing threads each box containing 10 reels of sewing threads. I hope these materials and sewing accessories will help provide more dresses to the Project Hope Burma Drive.
Here is the parcel (not sure though how I am going to take this to the postoffice tomorrow as it weighs more than 12 kilos - first parcel I ever packed that weighs more than 10 kilos) -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

Unfortunately the lighting in my garage is not that bright at night so I had a difficult time figuring out who the donors of these fabric materials are although looking at some of the pictures of donated materials I have I can identify donations from Kim Foster, Sash Hinton, Jenni Kirilov, a bundle each from Linda Smyth and Monika Osvald. My apologies if one of the bundles were donated by you and your name is not mentioned.

I hope to publish images of the dresses and/or pairs of shorts that will be sewn out of these fabric donations once they are completed and make it to the Project Hope Burma October delivery.

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

Feedback on Quilts sent to Romania

Last night I received a confirmation email from Monica Tabarac of the Humanitas Charity that the two parcels of quilts I sent to Fundatia Romanian Relief last May has arrived safely. Thank you Monica. It is time to send another 2 parcels to arrive in early November in time for the start of their winter season.

To see a larger and more readable version of this message, please click here.

Dress Distribution #73A - For Project Hope Burma Parcel 1

This is the first parcel of 3 for the Project Hope Burma for the Karen refugees. Sending by batches will allow me to budget the cost of sending the parcels to Croydon Hills Baptist church in Victoria (c-o Kathy Thompson) who will be coordinating the delivery of the dresses to Burma. On this parcel are gifts for the 13 boys and 12 girls of the Pitaka Primary School and the first 31 dresses out of the planned 100 dresses I have committed to donate in addition to the contributions that Barbara Dodson will be coordinating at her end. All these dresses will be leaving for Burma in early October. 
Here is the parcel which will be sent via Australia Post this coming Wednesday -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Vanya Bryant
2) Jo Holt
3) Betty Barrett and Betty Paull
4) Lyn Granger
5) Craft and Hope Group
6) Inspired Peel Sewers organized by Judy Scott
7) T-shirts by Monika Osvald
8) Dress A Girl Australia

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (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 to all the donors who made this parcel possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

The second schedule of delivery to Croydon Victoria will be at the end of the month of August and the last delivery will be mid-September. Please take note of the delivery dates. And again, please take note of the guidelines on dresses if you are donating in order to be included in the distributions.

Dress Distribution #72B - Dresses for Peru (Christmas Edition) Parcel 2

This is parcel 2 of 35 dresses and 18 sets of matching pairs of shorts and t-shirts allocated to the Children of Peru Christmas Edition to be sent to be sent in late August to Julia Chuquitaype to get to Peru in time for Christmas.
Here is the parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Diane Ware
2) Craft and Hope Group
3) T-shirts by Karina Tomlinson, Carolyn Watson, Catherine Jenkins
4) Pairs of shorts by Vanya Bryant, Sarah Tanmahapran, Carolyn Watson, Heather Harris

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (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 to all the donors who made this parcel possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated. Thank you.

Dress Distribution #72A - Dresses for Peru (Christmas Edition) Parcel 1

Since I already have the items sorted and packed in plastic bags, I thought I should just complete the whole process and put them in a box. Here is a parcel of 77 dresses and 2 pairs of shorts for the Children of Peru Christmas edition. This is parcel 1 of 2 which will be sent in late August to Julia Chuquitaype to get to Peru in time for Christmas.
Here is the first parcel -

and here are the contents of the parcel -

made possible by the following donors -
1) Members of All Saints' Parish South Hobart c-p Suzanne Nixon
2) Monika Osvald
3) Vanya Bryant
4) Lorraine Brown and group
5) Lyn Granger
6) Betty Barrett and Betty Paull
7) Gaylene Herrmann
8) Pat Burton
9) Inspired Peel Sewers organized by Judy Scott

To see larger images of the contents of this parcel, please click here. For more details on this distribution (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 to all the donors who made this parcel possible. Your kindness and generosity is much appreciated.

Just a reminder to anyone who wants to donate, please make sure the dresses you are donating meets the guidelines of dresses to donate. I am not looking for quantity but rather quality of the dresses being donated. Thank you.

Donation Acknowledgement FY14/#89 to #93 - From various individuals and Craft & Hope Group

It is time for donation acknowledgements for the month of August and this time from 3 individuals (Vanya Bryant, Diane Ware, Louise Wright) and Craft & Hope Group. 

1) Donation #89 is a parcel of 15 dresses from Vanya Bryant. All of these 15 will be allocated to the Project Hope - Burma Charity Drive -

2) Donation #90 is a parcel of 7 dresses from Diane Ware. All of these 7 dresses will be allocated to the Children of Peru Christmas Edition -

3) Donation #91 are two bundles of fabric materials from Louise Wright of Tasmania -

4) Donation #92 is from the Craft and Hope group of South Australia. It is a parcel of 33 pillowcase dresses which will be allocated to the Children of Peru Christmas Edition, 24 sleeved dresses which will be allocated to the Project Hope - Burma Charity Drive and 2 pairs of shorts -

5) Donation #93 is from my collection of T-shirts. I was able to gather 17 sized 7 girls t-shirts which will be made into 17 t-shirt dresses in the next few weeks. This 17 t-shirt dresses is part of the 50 dresses I have committed to sew for the Project Hope - Burma Charity drive. Instead of matching them with pairs of shorts I have decided to make them into T-shirt dresses.

Thank you to all the donors of these dresses. Your time, money and effort in making these dresses are well appreciated. Thank you.

Also, let me remind anyone who wants to donate to please follow the guidelines in sewing dresses especially when it comes to the fabric material to use and if you are using ribbons for pillowcase dresses, the type of ribbon to use and how to attach them to the dress. No ribbons which are being used for gift-wrapping should be used as straps. These type of ribbons are like paper ribbons and washing will totally damaged it and make the dress not wearable. Thank you.

Too thin and flimsy materials used

I have to say this so anyone who wants to donate will start to think twice before donating. I am very disappointed with some of the dresses I received in June. They really are very thin and flimsy that if the child has a tattered undie underneath it will show through the dress. The purpose of why we make dresses is to give a child a decent dress to wear and to give them a thin and flimsy dress that shows everything underneath...I do not see the purpose of why we still provide them a dress. Perhaps they are better off with their tattered dresses. I am not going to beg to make sure your dress materials are acceptable but if you want to help make a difference by donating a dress, please make sure that they meet the standards otherwise they will not be included in any of the distributions nor am I going to spend so much time reminding everyone or letting donors know that their dresses are too thin and flimsy. The cost to send these items are very expensive and I want to make sure that I send only the ones that are of good quality and will last for a long period of time. Thank you.

Status update on Project Hope Burma

Status Update on Project Hope-Burma. Last night I was able to fill up a box for the Pitaka Primary school kids of 13 boys and 12 girls. I now have a total of 23 dresses, 13 pairs of shorts with matching 13-tshirts. Also received commitments for 48 dresses, 12 pairs of shorts and 22 t-shirts. Thanks to everyone who is making this project possible.

Looks like my mojo is back

Looks like my mojo is back to create small things again. About two months ago I made these 6 teddy bears hoping to sell to help me raise funds for the Dress A Girl Australia well. For some reason I lost my eagerness to finish them and just left them lying down in one of my craft trays. I was planning to make and sell  an 'Adopt a Teddy Bear' born on this planet earth with a mission of making this world a better place. I had everything set in place including the tags to print but I lost my mojo to finish them. Sometimes it just happens.

Well, guess what. Last night I took one of them and made a set of clothes for it. I guess my 'mojo' is back. Although it is not completely finish yet, the collar needs finishing touches and I need to print the tag but at least I put my hands back into it. This is Teddy Bear Alvin, born last night 1-Aug-2014 with a mission to make this world a better place. He is about 27cms tall and 17cms wide. His 'make this world a better place' mission is to help raise money to drill a well in the community of Kalagi Uganda and give hope to the people of the community. I hope to finish all 6 and take it with me on market day next weekend.

I also created another 'small thing' yesterday. An 'I Love Quilting' mini banner with sewing charms hanging at the bottom edge. Today I will find a blank card that will fit the banner so it is easy to give as a gift. It measures approximately 12cms x 7cms.

Some people think I make weird things and not apt for raising funds. What can I do if nobody likes them. At least I made something. ♥☺♥ This world is not mine but I can do anything to make it a better place.

What's up for August?

What's up for August, Dress A Girl Australia? For this month, am targetting at least 50 dresses as my personal contribution to the Project - Hope Burma Charity Drive and the countdown starts today -

Emails of thanks from the Borroloola Community N.T.

Again, am sharing emails of thanks I received today regarding the dress distribution I allocated to the children of the Borroloola Community in the Northern Territory.

 To access a larger and more readable version of this email, please click here.

To access a larger and more readable version of this email, please click here.

Thank you to all who made this distribution possible. Much appreciated.

Picture Feedback from parcels sent to Morningstar Foundation South Africa.

I received this picture and letter tonight from Tricia of Morningstar Foundation South Africa. These dresses were included in one of the 6 boxes (South Africa Winter Collection) I sent to Morningstar Foundation in South Africa last month. Seeing these kids with their big smiles makes the job (although hard as sometimes you have to endure negative comments, of people trying to bring you down for reasons I cannot understand why and takes a lot of effort to be very strong) very rewarding and fulfilling.

and here is the letter I received with the pictures -

To access a larger and more readable version of this letter, please click here.

Thank you Tricia and Joan for such a wonderful letter of gratitude and the pictures. Not only did the girls had such great big smiles on their faces but it also brought a big smile for me. Thank you. And thank you to the donors who made this distribution possible. Much appreciated.

Kids from Burma

Sharing this picture of kids from Burma who will be recipients of the first batch of clothes to be sent in October.

If you want make a difference to the lives of these kids and other kids in the Karen community, please help support the Hope Project - Burma (Karen refugees) Charity Drive of providing dresses, pairs of shorts and tshirts for the kids of Burma. First delivery will be made in early October and the second and larger delivery is currently scheduled for December.

For more information about this Dress A Girl Australia Charity drive project, please click here. For more information on the Hope Project - Sharing hope on the Thai-Burma border, please click here.