Could we talk about something a little personal today please? Underwear. Would you be surprised if I told you that to some women underwear is a luxury, that it's beyond their reach to own even basic items like a pair of panties? Of course you would! Quite rightly too. Can there be anything more basic, more essential for a girl to own than her underwear?
Yesterday, thanks to the lovely Leah, I found out about a wonderful charity called Smalls For All which collects underwear for girls and women who desperately need them. If you were to go look in your underwear drawer right now, would you find a couple of bras that you don't wear anymore, maybe one or two that you bought because you liked the colour or design and got bored with very quickly?
Imagine the joy of a girl who doesn't own any underwear being given her first bra? In some parts of Africa underwear is seen as a status symbol. Something only the wealthy are lucky enough to own. Can you imagine a world where young girls, if they are lucky enough to attend school, will regularly be absent for several days each month simply because they don't own pants?
Of course hygiene isn't the only concern for these girls. Not owning underwear can of course leave women vulnerable to disease but can also lead to abuse, since women who own underwear are seen as having the protection of a husband or father.
Smalls For All was founded by a very sweet lady called Maria Macnamara who became aware of this problem and set out to do something about it. She collects any donated bras and will either pass them on to ladies and girls who can use them or arrange for them to be recycled. Even bras which have seen their best days can still be useful because they can be recycled, with the proceeds used to pay for girls to attend school.
Imagine the difference that bra you're never going to wear sitting in your undies drawer could make honeys? Imagine the joy of a woman receiving it? Smalls For All will also accept pairs of pants, which should of course be unworn and new. Most needed are panties in children's (girls and boys too please) sizes age 3-15 yrs and ladies UK size 8-16.
This week when I do my usual shop, I'll be adding a couple of packs of panties to my trolley. They'll then be safely packed with the bras I've already looked out and I'll be posting them to Smalls for all here:
Smalls For All
108 Buchanan Crescent,
Eliburn
Livingston
EH54 7EF
Scotland
UK
You can also connect with Maria & Smalls For All in the following places honeys:
Smalls For All on Twitter
Smalls For All on Facebook
The Smalls For All Website
Information on the different ways we can all help
This is such an amazing way for women to help other women. The world is still largely run by men and after all is said & done who better understands the personal needs of women than other women.
God bless Maria for having founded this marvellous, caring & life changing charity, our lovely Leah for sharing news about their awesome work and thank you too for taking the time to read this post dear ones. Till next time honeys, hugs always xx
Thanks for sharing Rosie. You're a special lady. xxx
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have heard of this fabulous charity if it wasn't for you angel, thank you so much for this and for your wonderful blog, it never fails to welcome me with a hug whenever I visit. You're such an amazing person, sending heaps of hugs honey xxx
Deletehi was wondering if you could send me out a few posters to put up in my church as I am going to ask members if they could all bring a pack of pants thanks sadiemuirhead@yahoo.co.uk
ReplyDeleteHi Sadie, that's so sweet of you! Such a lovely way to raise awareness of this fabulous charity's work. I don't have any connection to their charity, I just saw them mentioned on a dear blogging friend's Instagram and desperately wanted to do something to help.
DeleteTheir webpage is here honey: http://www.smallsforall.org/ which has all of the details you need (I've listed their various facebook, twitter pages etc above) but they do have a downloadable PDF poster at their website, hang on, I'll go see if I can find it for you.
There is a very pretty PDF poster to download here: http://www.smallsforall.org/docs/Poster%203%20v6.pdf I'm actually going to print it out and take a copy to my Drs surgery with me. We already collect there for a children's home in Malawii and I'm hoping they won't mind our adding this poster too. Thank you so much for stopping by, it means such a lot to me and thank you for wanting to help Smalls For All too, bless you honey for being so kind, hugs xx