Wow! It’s been exactly one month since I landed in DC after being in Malawi for two weeks. Time sure does fly!

I’ve been hearing from Olipa and the Malawi tailors quite a bit. Our sewing guilds have been busy making kits and getting them to schoolgirls at several new locations as well as to our established schools. Our intention is to return to each school annually to be sure any new or incoming students are exposed to our curriculum and receive a MoonCatcher kit. We have purchased water buckets for the school latrines to be sure water is available for students to use when changing pads.

Uganda news is plentiful as well. Phoebe has been making sure our guilds are producing kits for our schools and the “Rotary” schools as well.

Our local Rotary Club in Scotia, New York and the Namugongo Rotary Club in Uganda have provided a generous grant through Rotary International to The MoonCatcher Project.  This grant will fund MoonCatcher Kits for 20 schools with along with reproductive/menstrual health education. While I was in Uganda in March, we visited the first Rotary school and last week Phoebe bought supplies for the second.  This is a three-year project and will significantly expand our work in Uganda.

Phoebe recently went to the northern Ugandan city of Gulu to meet with a project called Step Up run by Matthew Kane and his wife. This organization works with Ugandan women.  Phoebe spent a couple of days with this group to the delight of everyone involved. Here’s what she wrote to me after the experience:

This area (Gulu) has a high rate of young mothers. The need for pads is also very high. They generally need assistance of all kinds. Matt and the wife are wonderful people. They work with a wonderful team helping Gulu mothers to deliver healthy babies.

Phoebe and I have discussed trying to work more in this area next year, once we have caught up with our existing commitments – all having been delayed because of Covid.

 Phoebe has also been teaching soap making again. We are hoping to get back up to speed with this as well and return to including a bar in each kit we distribute.

Here at home MoonBees have been back in action. It’s been fun to see old friends and meet new ones too. I’m beginning to get the hang of it again after forgetting various supplies for the first few events.

International Menstrual Hygiene Day is on May 28 this year. We will host a special MoonBee on Saturday May 27 as part of this global event. It will be at the Unitarian Church in Schenectady from 2:00 - 4:00 pm. Learn more HERE.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

We are looking for volunteers to help with MoonBees and a few hardy souls to take on an idea for a film festival of girl power and menstrual messaging. We’re hoping to include documentaries, animation, smart and silly stories and whatever else fits the mission. Call or write Ellie at ellie@mooncatcher.org if you’re interested. We’re always looking for new fundraising ideas too!

As a result of MoonBees we’ve made contact with new friends who have taken our kits to Morocco (100 kits), Tanzania (100 kits), Southwest Uganda which is quite far from our main operations (100 kits) as well as to our old friends at Operation Christmas (25 kits). Soon we’ll deliver 75 kits to a woman who will travel to Haiti.

We are doing more presentations lately – and spreading the word about period poverty. I spoke at the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Symposium in Johnstown in April. Over the month of April, Together Women Rise Chapters across the country hosted MoonCatcher Board presentations – most via Zoom.  The Beverwyck (an Independent Senior Living facility in Slingerlands) hosted a presentation recently as did the Rotary Heart Beat Club Zoom with Rotarian Helen Penna who traveled to Uganda with me.

Would your group be interested in learning more about global period poverty and the work of The MoonCatcher Project?  Just contact Ellie at ellie@mooncatcher.org to learn more.

Also in April I was invited to be interviewed by Jesse King of 51%, a podcast produced by WAMC.  Listen to the podcast HERE.

It’s been a busy month and it’s wonderful to see that we are thriving and moving forward. It’s a joy to see flowers and turn over rich garden soil.

I am grateful to everyone who makes this work possible.

Happy Spring to all of you!