Some more awareness of womens issues

I was very excited to be invited to attend a meeting at BESIK, where Jose and her colleagues were collating data they had collected in the Bobonaro District last week.  BESIK is looking at how to assist women in their sanitation needs.  Part of this includes a goal to increase the use of toilets, but also assessing what women's needs are in regards to sanitation.  It was fascinating discovering some of the beliefs surrounding menstruation, and both encouraging and informative for Belekria.
I was able to show a sample of our pads, and explain a few benefits.  They were quick to realise themselves that the pads would save money and create less rubbish.  One woman commented how soft the fabric was.
In preparation for the meeting I began to sketch out some notes, and the dot points I began with, grew into a decent report conveying my process and developments, challenges and hopes.
I will upload the report to the research page above.


Being a sewing room, I think its ok to say that im glad that "gender" has come into fashion. :)

On the same theme, Liz at CARE has also contacted me and I hope to be able to chat with her early next week.

To Do List:

• CARE
• World Vision
• PLAN
• ALOLA

Op Shopping in a 3rd world country

A few weeks ago our neighbours needed to chop down 2 coconut trees – which is kind of ok as there are about 40 of them all around our house and we hear a coconut drop nearly every day, so a few less to worry about is a good thing.  (Although of course its a little sad to chop down a lovely fruiting tree).  Anyway, where was I….Ah yes,, so the the chainsaw man arrived and cranked up the RRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE machine.  Right next to our house which doesn't have glass in many windows, so there is no way to dampen the sound.   A few hours later, as they were still RRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEing, I realised that they were also slicing the tree up into nice beams etc. and that they hadn't even started on the second tree.   Well no school today, and maybe we should go for a long walk.??  So Serenity and I soon agreed that a nice outing would to be to hike up to the closest market (only a handful of stalls) and “go opshopping” for the first time since March.  Off we went and enjoyed buying a few outfits, esp a wedding outfit for Serenity to wear to the upcoming wedding at our place.  It was a long walk, especially the walk home and we didn’t arrive home till around 4:00.  On the way home we lamented the fact that our local village didn’t have a “sack of clothes” shop we could visit.  We tossed the idea around about purchasing one ourselves……
Second hand clothes arrive in large cloth sacks about 1m wide and 1 m high.  In my browsing history it seems that most of these seem to come from China.  There is a wide variety in each sack from silk blouses to cotton tshirts and plenty of jeans thrown in. Anyone who knows me will know that its a special treat to go rummaging through second hand clothes.  I don't get to do it very often here though – maybe once every 3-6 months.  Prices vary from 50c-$4.  About the same, or a bit cheaper than Aussie Op shops.
Anyway, can you guess my thought processes???  Here we are in Bellekria, looking for cheap fabrics for our bags etc, and turning old clothing into new attractive dresses. 
On returning home I popped in to the sewing room to chat with Sinta, Novi and Anna.  I mentioned the idea of buying a sack.  They all perked up! OOH what a lovely idea!  We could buy it, open it up and sell the best stuff (after taking out our favourites of course), then, we could offer to alter the clothes to fit better $$. AND any large clothing or weird stuff we can chop up and turn into other things!  What a fantastic idea.

Some other pics of the sewing room...

Two of my neighbours having a little lesson one evening

Sometimes its gets pretty busy with women and children.

A lovely shot of the great cutting table!

A neighbour Rosina doing a few hours work for us cutting some flannel

Israel entertaining some neighbours kids on the sewing room floor

The beautiful almost new Janome that was donated by a lovely pensioner in Australia.

We now actually have a ceiling which keeps it a bit cooler than the plain tin

Trying to design a bag with some input from a school girl

Sinta working through her little production line of cloth pads

I re-used long life milk cardboard cartons as storage.  Slit them in half and taped them up.  They work pretty well.

We have baskets of fabric scraps and old clothing to remake into smaller items like purses.

Sinta and Angelica hard at work.

Well they may not be the best photographs, but hopefully this gives you more of an idea about our average days in the sewing room.

First steps

Just before we returned to Timor in April this year (2010), a lovely lady gave us a donation, explaining that she raised the money by doing sewing jobs.  Samuel told her that I had a little idea for a sewing project and that we would use her money to give it a trial.  A surprise to me!...
After arriving I spoke with a long term missionary/nurse (Branca) who has worked in a small mountain village for about 7 years.  Branca was quite enthusiastic about the idea, and we decided to make some sets to trial with 6 of the more educated women in the village she works in.
Branca told me that most of the women in her village cannot read, a lot of the women don’t have underpants and some women stay at home while menstruating as they have nothing suitable to use in public.
She also re-affirmed that Education is really important.

So I went back home and began to sketch and draw, and designed my own version of a modern belted pad – to use without underpants!

Some other factors I was keen to include:
·    Adjustable – female bodies tend to fluctuate more than males.
·    Easy to sew – so women can make them themselves.
·    Simple to replicate – As above
·    Easy to replace bits – So women can repair them themselves
·    Quick to dry
·    Can be used with any scraps of absorbent type fabrics
·    Suitable for nights
·    waterproof
Amazingly I was then able to borrow a sewing machine and bought some cotton fabrics to make about 12 sets of each design. While cutting the fabric up 2 neighbouring women asked about what I was making, and after hearing about it thought it was a great idea. One of them even asked for a set straight away.

All of a sudden the idea has seemed to grow rather quickly!
 Subtle words seeped out occasionally about "Cynthia's sewing project", and hesitantly I have shared my dream with a few Aussie women.  They all seem to think its a good idea!
What do you think?

Nuts and Bolts

What do they look like?
I came across a pattern for a simple waterproof  base with loops to hold  any type of absorbent fabric.  PERFECT!

I have decided to use only 2 different styles.
circle design
belted design
Both have a waterproof layer (P.U.L.- purchased in Australia), and both use a "base" with loops to hold folded "inserts" of any type of absorbent fabric.
Both designs are very quick to dry, easy to sew and simple to repair.
As soon as I can I'll stick some photos up of my prototypes!

Where did this crazy idea come from?

Well, being a woman, I had often in the past wondered what the poorest of poor do when it comes to their monthly cycle.  When we lived in Timor in 2008, I began to wonder how even the middle class women (if there is such a thing) could afford the disposable items.

Some issues I had to consider:
·    Modern Aussie cloth pads are expensive - ~$10 each!
·    Neat all-in-one types take a long time to dry, so they would need to purchase/own more of them.
·    Would the women in East Timor think it was a weird idea?
·    The women would need to know how to wash them hygienically – I must provide an instruction sheet!.
·    Would the women even have underpants to hold them in place?

WHY?

Timorese women making modern cloth pads to sell for a profit and use themselves.

- East  Timor is a very poor country
- East Timor does not have very hygienic processes for dealing with used disposable pads- (most rubbish is placed on a pile outside the house and burnt every week or two.) 
- Some women have to stay home from school/work while menstruating
- Many women do not have underwear to hold disposable pads in place.
- Many women need a small income to provide basic essentials for their family such as fresh food, medicines, clothing and blankets.
Why should they spend a precious $2+ on pads that get thrown out after one use, when they could buy a re-usable alternative for a similar price that will last many years.