Dress a Girl Around the World

Peggy lives in Iowa. Audrey lives in Arizona. They are sisters-in-law.

Audrey was going on her first mission trip to Uganda with Hope 4 Kids International. She told Peggy she wanted to purchase fabric for the women of Uganda who are learning to sew. Peggy, who loves to sew found a pattern for a pillowcase dress and gave it to Audrey saying that pillowcases would be cheaper and easier to transport.

Audrey brought the pattern to Uganda and gave it to me. I thanked her and added it to my folder of other great suggestions. When I retuned home I forgot about it.

Last March I decided to make a last minute trip to Uganda and wondered what I should take for a project to do with the women. I racked my brain and then . . . Wait a minute! Where is that pattern Audrey gave me? I dug it out of my suggestions folder—sent out an email begging for pillowcases and supplies to take to Uganda. Community church of Joy and Grace Community told the women of their churches—people from around the country wanted to donate and soon I had a great supply of pillowcases. I even received funds for the project!!

My sister Joan and I carried 100+ pillowcases to Smile Africa Ministries—one of our Ugandan partners—and taught the women to make pillowcase dresses. What fun it was to sew on treadle sewing machines and to spend the day laughing and sewing with our Ugandan friends. After we left the women made Easter dresses for the Karamojong girls who come to Smile Africa each day to be fed—they once were picking through garbage for their food—now they get a nutritious meal each day and are taught basic reading, writing and arithmetic. They sing songs and learn about Jesus.

In July we sent more pillowcases and supplies with our summer teams. This time four of our Ugandan partners received pillowcases, supplies and instruction on how to make the dresses. This not only teaches the women to sew but also clothes their children.

Carmen Kamrath wrote an article about the pillowcase dresses in the Sept/Oct issue of Children’s Ministry magazine and gave the link to our Hope 4 Kids International website. People started writing wanting to be involved. Some are collecting pillowcases—others are making them—girl scouts looking to earn their sewing badges, etc.

I received a letter from my friend Emily who is going to Honduras with her college group to build bridges in communication, work with kids, etc. I started thinking. . .what if we sent pillowcase dresses with Emily for the girls in Honduras? What if we started making pillowcases for girls around the world?? Hope 4 Kids’ teams could carry them but we could donate to other groups going to countries where we don’t go.

I asked Emily if she’d like some pillowcase dresses for the girls in Honduras—she was delighted. Other partners and friends asked for pillowcase dresses to take on their outreaches.

I appealed to friends around the country—they appealed to their friends—and Dress a Girl Around the World began!!

Audrey and Peggy—look how God has used your ideas and grew it to this HUGE project. I believe we really will dress a girl around the world!!


We’d love to hear your stories on how you became involved in this project!