Are we going to do this again?
It’s rainy today and everything looks washed in green and happy for a break from the heat. If your garden is anything like mine, you are up to your eyeballs in cucumbers, garlic, tomatoes and of course, zucchini. What amazing bounty. I wish I could share it with all our MCP partners throughout the world. Life right now is so hard for so many people.
What is most on my mind these days is Haiti. We had hoped to start a sewing guild in Leon (in the District of Jérémie) on the southwestern part of the island. Two local Zonta Clubs (Schenectady and Montgomery Fulton) provided seed money for the project. We planned our first visit for January 2020. Political unrest forced us to postpone the trip. Then COVID forced our planned 2021 trip to be postponed as well. Now the 7.2 earthquake followed by tropical storm Grace has wreaked havoc on this already suffering country. Leon and the surrounding area have been hard hit and need help.
The photos above and below, provided by our friends at the Bay Road Church, show damage to a home in Leon.
Here’s what you can do: Send your tax-deductible contribution to Love & Hope for Leon, Haiti
You can mail checks to:
"LH4LH" c/o Bay Road Church, 1167 Bay Rd, Lake George, NY 12845
OR donate online HERE.
Meanwhile here at home there is plenty to do even though The MoonCatcher Project has had to postpone some long-anticipated events. With COVID once again on the rise we decided the responsible thing is to continue to social distance. This means, no in-person MoonBees or presentations quite yet. We had planned a MoonBee facilitation workshop and a party to thank all the people who made masks for us. We had MoonBees on the books and several in person presentations planned. Instead, MoonBees and presentations will continue via Zoom, until things change, and we feel it’s safe to meet in person. Take a deep breath …we can do this… again!
Our MoonCatcher partners are going through something similar. Schools had opened and tailors had come back to work but then the numbers started to rise and everything was shut down again.
In Malawi all of our sewing centers are making masks right now because this need is so great. Once school starts again all the children will need masks to attend classes.
MoonCatcher Malawi tailor Emmanuel continues to work outside as COVID cases have been on the rise.
Uganda shut down for 6 weeks and is slowly starting to re-open. The schools are still closed but we are making kits and hope to distribute them soon. Work has been slowed on our new MoonCatcher Center in Wakiso - but we are still hoping to be able to open in the fall.
Thanks to a grant from the Social Justice Action Fund (UUSS) we were able to purchase a generator, furntiture and other necessities for our new MoonCatcher Center in Wakiso, Uganda.
In Kenya schools are open and masks are mandatory. Jacky is taking precautions to travel and teach safely.
Jacky recently visited the Kolunga Primary school where 105 girls participated in instruction on menstrual health and hygiene. It was her second visit to the school and 56 new students received kits.
MoonCatcher India/Shashi Kiran Charitable Trust has been able to do some outside workshops to teach about menstruation and distribute kits. We continue to keep our tailors busy after having closed down for a while when things got really dire in India.
Last week our partners in India held a workshop on menstrual health at an orphanage in Meghalaya as shown in the photos above and below.
MoonCatcher Philippines has been making kits but not as many as they had hoped because getting supplies during COVID is difficult. The schools are closed so the kits are being stored until classes resume.
In Nigeria, Alice and her tailors continue to work hard to expand the project. They were recently featured in a Nigerian newspaper (shown below).
Be safe. Be well. Enjoy the rest of the Summer.
Ellie