Poughkeepsie NY Days for Girls Team

Co-Chairs: Sabashnee Govender & Judy Longacre

Work sessions: 2nd Saturday of each month, 1:30- 4:30 pm
Zion Episcopal Church
12 Satterlee Place, Wappingers Falls

The co-chairs request that you let them know in advance that you’ll be attending, so that if there is a change regarding the work sessions they can notify you.

The Days for Girls Poughkeepsie NY team was established In June 2017. We make sustainable feminine hygiene kits for women and girls who live in developing countries, refugee camps and for those who experience periodic poverty in the USA. The Days for Girls Poughkeepsie NY team is the local team for Days for Girls International and a community initiative for the Poughkeepsie Branch of AAUW.

The kits will cut school absences (by 5-7 days/month) and in this way, reduce dropouts and increase completion rates. Each kit is made up of 2 shields, 8 liners, a transport bag, a washcloth, 2 pairs of under wear, hotel size soap and a drawstring bag. We make the shields, liners, transport bags and drawstring bags. Thus far our team has donated 413 international kits (to Haiti, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mexico, Brazil and to refugee projects in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Syria, Chad, and Jordan). To combat the Ukrainian crisis, 8468 disposable pads were collected for distribution by Days for Girls International. Locally we have donated 6 kits and 5 pods to local women’s shelters and food pantries and 100 pods to the rural migrant ministries of western New York. During the Pandemic we donated 265 masks to local Nursing homes and Hospitals.

To complete the kits, we need to add underwear and wash cloths. We welcome your donations to help complete the kits.

Guidelines for underwear: Panties (stain hiding colors are recommended)

Girls sizes 10, 12, 14, 16 and Women’s 5 (Girls size 16 and Women’s size 5 are the same size). A cotton blend brief (nylon causes chafing), no thongs or boy shorts (see guidelines for fabric regarding prints).

Guidelines for Washcloths: Must be cotton and must be new, not white.

Guidelines for fabric: Fabrics for DfG Kits must be NEW:

For Shields: Quality, durable 100% cotton (sometimes called Quilter’s cotton).
For Liners: Quality 100% cotton flannel
For Bags: Quality, durable 100% cotton or cotton/poly (cotton/poly okay for bags only).

All fabric must be: • Appealing Medium / Dark colors, preferably with patterns that help hide stains. • Botanical, geometric, batik, etc. patterns are best. • No light colored fabrics that will easily show stains • No prints with a face/eyes (animals, fish, people, etc.) • No insects or snakes (butterflies okay) • No Camouflage / Guns / Hunting • No solid saffron fabric for Asia (monk robe yellow) • Patterns okay • Avoid Cartoon / TV / Pop Culture / National flags/Words/ Glam • Bed sheets should not be used because the threads are usually smaller and therefore not as durable or strong as the quality fabric you buy at a fabric store.

Cash donations are also welcome, please see More Information and Forms.