Forging Ahead in 2023

We have had a busy couple of months. Our annual Dining for Dollars lasagna dinner fundraiser was back this year as a full dinner, after two years of pandemic cookies. It truly takes a village to pull off this event - with over 60 volunteers we prepared and delivered nearly 800 lasagna dinners. So far we have brought in over $16,000 with many donation envelopes still out. This was are biggest year ever! Thanks to all who ordered dinners, drove, cooked, washed dishes, shopped, baked or just cheered us on. Thanks too to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady for hosting us and to our sponsors: Casa Visco, Perecca’s Bakery, Honest Weight Food Cooperative, Saratoga Honda and Carpe Diem Coffee.

Our annual fund drive was also our biggest ever. We set a goal of $35,000 for our year-end campaign (about what we raised last year). I am so thrilled to report that the total raised was over $52,000. Thanks to our many generous donors for helping us to keep our work going in 2023.

MoonBees are Back!    While we still are restricting the number of participants at MoonBees, we have been producing MoonCatcher Kits locally with the help of our amazing volunteers. On January 7 the Progress Club of Delmar hosted a MoonBee at the First United Methodist Church of Delmar where participants sewed, listened to a presentation, and bought $240 worth of crafts from Africa and India. Local colleges and schools often invite us to offer a volunteer and learning experience for students. In November the Sigma Delta Tau Sorority of Union College held a MoonBee and there will be another at Union this month. The Feminist Club of Guilderland HighSchool will host us next week and Congregation Ohav Shalom in Albany has invited us for an event in February. This Martin Luther King Day we returned to the Saratoga Library to participate in the MLK Day of Service (photos below).

The kits being produced locally will be put to good use. We are working with the Albany District Chapter of the Links, Inc. to send 350 MoonCatcher Kits to a refugee camp in the Dominican Republic on the boarder of Haiti. The Haitian refugees there have no healthcare, legal jobs or much else. A medical team supported by Albany Links is going to bring medical supplies and health care to the camp along with instructions on how to make a MoonCatcher Kit. I will be training several volunteers to work with the tailors to sew our kits. The refugees will sell them as a source of income but the 350 that we send are designated for schoolgirls at no charge. The Saratoga Peace Pod has provided a handmade cotton washcloth for each kit and a Skidmore College grant will cover the cost of soap for each as well as for other materials needed to produce kits locally.

We often hear from faith groups, nonprofits or individuals with requests for kits. Recently a gentleman from Cameroon contacted me with a request for kits that he can bring to his village the next time he travels home. Operation Christmas Child is a national network of churches that provide gifts to low income communities around the world and several of their affiliates have requested our kits with visual instructions to be packed along with other gifts that go to countries including: Botswana, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Malawi, Mali, Peru, Philippines.

Updates from Our Sewing Cooperatives

In Malawi, schools were late opening after the Christmas holidays due to cholera outbreak.  Cholera is a problem in Malawi every year but this year was worse than usual. It is comforting to know that schools did reopen and our team is working hard to deliver MoonCatcher Kits.  This month our three Malawian cooperatives will produce 550 kits. Below are two photos of students receiving kits, our Coordinator, Olipa shopping for fabric and posing with MoonCatcher tailor Emmanuel.

Our Board member, Agnes Pala-Bukhala recently returned from Kenya where she has begun working with local government officials on partnering to provide kits for students. Since 2017 Kenya has vowed to provide menstrual hygiene products to girls. However, with limited resources, schools often run out of disposable products. Agnes is hoping that local officials will see the value of partnering with MCP to provide school girls with MoonCatcher Kits, which can last 3-5 years when cared for properly. This effort will go far toward increasing the sustainability of our project.

Meanwhile, Jacky, our Kenya Coordinator, reports that she will produce and deliver 200 kits in January (see photos below). Jacky’s daughter, Ellie Von (named after me!) has recently turned three — photos of her melt my heart every time I see them so I’ve included one here.

Recently the WHO declared that the Ebola epidemic in Uganda is over and schools have reopened. This was the second-deadliest outbreak in the country’s history, with 142 confirmed cases and 55 deaths, and an additional 22 related deaths. We are all breathing a sigh of relief as all of our tailors and their families remain healthy and everyone is back working. Below are photos of Tabitha, one of our tailors and Phoebe’s assistant, distributing kits to local school girls.

Our partners at the Shashi Kiran Charitable Trust have partnered with numerous organizations including Blue Sky which has been distributing MoonCatcher Kits and providing menstrual health education in the far northeastern district of Assam (photos below).

Upcoming Delegation Visits in 2023:

I haven’t visited Africa since early 2020 — when our trip was cut short due to the pandemic. This year we are finally able to resume travel. In March I will be in Uganda and Kenya. Helen Penna will accompany me to Uganda and we are hoping to meet up with our Board Member Agnes Pala-Bukhala in Kenya. In April we are off to Malawi with Board Member Charlotte Mack Barrett. In the fall, Board Member Raeesa Waheed plans to accompany me to India — along with my daughter, Pisie, and her husband, Tony, (who happen to be filmmakers).

Many thanks to all of you who make this all possible.

Ellie