Dress a Girl Around the World

                                  Diana

 Experienced NGO Advocate

Diana says: 

"A friend wanted to know whether I heard of an organization" Dressing Girls Around the World"? I told her no, and she sent me the website. One look at the mission of the organization, I knew this organization would be one that I would like to spend time and energy. 

This year my husband and I sponsored a school in Negril, Jamaica ( I was born in Jamaica)  supplying medical and school supplies. This project adds to our passion. I am not a person with sewing skills, but do have skills in mobilizing friends and family for various causes. It is my hope to have dresses by January 2012 to take with me to Jamaica.

I am looking forward to working with each and everyone, and thanks for inviting me into such a wonderful family.

Diana Smith Walsh

email: thechoicesare@aol.com 

 Jill is instrumental in rallying volunteers in Hong Kong. She says,"Our aim is to spread the message over the Asia Pacific Rim & to make 5,000 dresses and more. " 

Join her Face Book page:  

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dress-a-Girl-Around-the-World-Hong-Kong-Chapter/131554516883618

To see photos of Jill and her Hong Kong team visit the photo gallery. 

Follow Jill's blog: http://dressagirlhongkong.blogspot.com/2010/12/birth-of-dress-girl-around-world-hong.html 

Gigi Sun

Am a business systems analyst by profession and known as Gigi Sun in the business world and loves anything handmade. When am busy being artsy and crafty, I am known by the name of Soft Treasures. It is with my crafting handmade cards that I was able to help (and still do when I get orders every now and then) through small donations a Breast Cancer research foundation here in Australia by donating a dollar for every handmade card I sold. It is with crafting that brought me to this website when searching for a certain fabric for a quilt I wanted to make and thought how awesome this idea is of Dressing A Girl around the world making sure that every little girl owned at least one dress. How great it would be to use my craft skills in helping  others and making this world a better place? Living, loving and laughing through craft!

My most immediate plan is to spread the Dress A girl around the world campaign as time would allow. Hopefully be able to sell lots and lots of buttons and maybe candles and other stuff to raise money to fund this awesome campaign, print flyers to distribute here in Sydney and hopefully around Australia. Ask help from friends to help spread the word. My aim is to be able to make at least 50 dresses in 6 months time or perhaps maybe more.

 I have lots of things in mind but my greatest wish for the future is to be able to collect as many fabrics and  pillowcases as possible and hopefully several sewing machines. Use these materials to make dresses by women as a means of livelihood in poverty-stricken places and be able to dress their little girls as well as all the other little girls around the world.. A long term plan but if and when it happens. that would really be the day.

For  any inquiries regarding this project here in Australia, please send email to dressagirlaustralia@gmail.com. 

Catherine

Catherine at Smile Africa Ministries in Uganda designed and created these dresses for the beautiful girls of Uganda. Smile Africa Ministries does a lot of outreach in surrounding villages and to the Karamojong tribe and has provided many dresses for girls. They also train women to sew so their chapter is dual purpose--it sets up women in business and provides dresses for their children. 

For information on sponsoring a woman and giving her the opportunity to become self sufficient contact lisa@h4wi.org

Louise

 My name is Louise Horler and I live near Bristol in the UK. I came across the 'Dress a Girl' charity after reading about it in a sewing magazine. As the mother of two small children I was really touched by what the charity was doing and how easy it would be for me to get involved. I made a few dresses and blogged about them and persuaded some other bloggers to join in too and before I knew it we had managed to collect nearly 200 dresses from all over the UK and Ireland. It made sense to try and get the dresses taken directly to where they were needed and so far 100 dresses have gone to Malawi from the UK with another 50 going to Kenya at the end of the year. I'm now addicted to making dresses and feel very excited about being the UK International Partner. I will keep trying to persuade people to make dresses and to find people who can take them to where they are needed around the world. I have a sewing blog 'Sew Scrumptious' and blog about each dress that I receive with photos and a link back to the maker. Its great for inspiration!

You can contact me through my blog http://sewscrumptious.blogspot.com or email me at louisehorler@blueyonder.co.uk if you live in the UK or Ireland and would like to get involved.

Gloria

My husband and I (and our 6 kids) have been privileged to work here in the Philippines for the past 20 years through the International Mission Board. We live in the most densely populated city in the world!  For the past ten years my husband and I have worked in Manila ministering mainly to the urban poor.  Greater urban area of Manila has a population at around 21,295,000--its hard to get an accurate estimate even of the urban poor--some reports say from 21%-40% are urban poor according to WHO definitions with no running water or plumbing.  Nationwide facts: population living below US$1.25 a day in 2006 was 23 per cent or around 20 million people. At the same time, about 44 per cent or over 40 million Filipinos were living on less than US$2 a day Here in Manila, the poorest of the poor live among mountains of garbage and families are scavenging just to survive.The gap between the rich and the poor in Manila is immeasurable.  These are the impoverished people we serve to give them hope for today and hope to help change their future. Through Dress a Girl, I am excited about another opportunity to bring hope and love into the hearts of Filipinas. They are survivors, and have the ability to face even the most difficult crisis with a smile. But can you imagine the lasting smiles of women given the possibility of a livelihood and means to feed their families or the smiles and dignity of little girls twirling in a new dress? I look forward to partnering with you to make this a possibility here in Manila and throughout the Philippines.

Contact Gloria fernfam8@gmail.com 

Wivi

I’m a 62 year old retired grandmother. I have worked 30 years at the local hospital, most of the time as a children's nurse. I also have a horticultural education and I love garden design.

I’m born in Copenhagen and when I was seven we moved to Halmstad, Sweden. 

I have sewed clothes all my life and now I have a grandchild in UK who is 3.5 years old who love when "farmor" sew here a pink and purple dress. So I know how important it is for a girl to have a dress with pockets.

My grandchild and I we each have a cozy cat called Charlie and every week they talk to each other over Skype.

I have studied child psychology in my education to a children's nurse and I know how important it is to have a doll or some other precious thing that is only yours.

I will speak warmly to all how important it is to send away a doll in every pocket because it can give the child a little comfort and someone to talk to.

wivi.winberg@gmail.com 

                                Roblynn 

Hola,

My name is Roblynn Neumann. I live with my husband and youngest daughter in Heredia Costa Rica. We have been in Costa Rica for almost six years. My husband and I own and operate a study abroad massage school here for part of the year and "retire" for the rest of the year.

I began sewing when I was 9 years old. My mom had put me in 4-H and my first project was a peasant blouse. I can honestly still remember the colors and even the color of seam binding on that little shirt. I did win a blue ribbon and was hooked. I sewed through high school for friends and family and even made a little cash. Once I got married and started having babies my sewing got a lot more fun. I still get teased by my kids about all the "matching" outfits I made them.

Now that I have more time and less kids at home I am very excited about this opportunity to get more involved in our community and use my talents. When my kids were teenagers we were part of another great organization "Families Helping Families". Through that organization we were able to travel to Mexico and Honduras to help build houses. I do hope to involve my seven children in this adventure as well and look forward to meeting and working with anyone and everyone that is involved.

We are also official "couch surfers", so if anyone is in the neighborhood our door is always open and we welcome you.

Peace and pura vida!

Roblynn

Roblynn can be reached at  momneumann2000@yahoo.com