India Reflections

It’s been twelve days since we returned from India. The jet lag has disappeared and I’m beginning to really appreciate what we were able to accomplish.

The Shashi Kiran Charitable Trust, in Delhi, is partnering with us to move The MoonCatcher Project (MCP) forward in India. We are so grateful for their help as we negotiate this new country. We truly couldn’t do this without them. Thank you to this great organization!

I miss the wonderful tailors that we found in India. These lovely women are such skilled seamstresses. It was a treat working together and sharing The MoonCatcher Project story. And an added pleasure for me was having industrial machines to work on since this is what I grew up with. My father must be smiling somewhere watching this unfold.

The MoonCatcher Team in Delhi.

We set up a beautiful, light and airy sewing space with these women. They are making two hundred kits every week, exceeding our projected goal of one hundred seventy-five. Wow! Their work is beautiful. Each woman pays careful attention to quality control and they all check each other’s work so that nothing will leave the room less than perfect. This makes me smile as I am a stickler for quality. I want each girl to receive a kit that is beautifully made and reflects the respect MCP has for her.

While in India, we were able to visit two schools to teach our class and more are being contacted to visit in December by our representative in India. The girls of India are receptive and eager to hear about menstrual management and reproductive health. We laughed with them as we discussed this delicate subject and tried to make it a comfortable topic. Being with girls is always my favorite part of this work.

We have a new survey to help us track the number of girls served and the retention of girls in each school. We are hoping that in-house teachers will be willing to help answer questions that may arise for the students and that they will be ongoing support for the students.

A power point presentation for The School of Social Work was well received with over sixty students both male and female in the room. They asked thoughtful questions and took lots of photos. Several students stepped up to say they would like to help. This is great as we’ll eventually need more help teaching our menstrual management and reproductive health curriculum to our school girls.

During our stay, we spent a lot of time sourcing fabrics, approving notions, and ordering necessities such as Tyvek.  We worked hard to try to understand this beautiful, interesting culture and are excited about  working together to help girls stay in school.

Now that we’re home I realize that the hard work of fundraising begins. This is an ambitious project that we’ve started. Making 200 kits a week, paying rent, utilities and labor are constant expenses. We’ve had help getting our new project started but will need to bring in more funds to keep it going. As our year-end fundraising campaign begins we will be counting on our donors to help us continue the work of this project. I can’t tell you how grateful I always am for everyone’s help.  Thank you all so very much!