Do you have $10? Or $100? Or maybe even $1000? Are you looking for a meaningful way to put it to work? I have a great opportunity for you to use your money to bless women on the island of Palawan in the Philippines with a blessing that will last each woman 5, 6, maybe even 7 years!  

I wrote this down to be sure that I tell you everything you need to know and keep it under 5 minutes so you will keep listening to the end. Forgive me if I look like I am reading it. I don’t want to miss anything important or talk more than I should.

I met these wonderful ladies in the summer of 2023 when I traveled to the Philippines with my friend who works as a missionary to their community. While I was with them, I learned about the incredibly difficult time women and girls in their remote culture have managing the perfectly ordinary aspect of their lives that comes every month for many years. Because these ladies are part of a culture that is very, very remote, they address many aspects of their lives in the way they were addressed 200 years ago by women in all cultures. In our westernized world, we cannot imagine not having access to disposable feminine products that enable us to go on with our daily lives every day regardless of whether or not we are menstruating. No one around us knows where we are in our monthly cycles because we have easy access to solutions that allow us to go to school, or work or social functions as if every day is exactly the same as any other.

That is not the case for the women and girls of the Palawan people. Girls lose days of school every month because they are unable to attend school when they are menstruating. Women miss days of work every month for the same reason. Missing school and work hampers their ability to be fully supportive of family and community efforts to prosper sufficiently to meet demands for food, clothing, shelter, and medical care. Thus, poverty has the upper hand.

Because their lives are so very different from our lives of outrageous abundance and immeasurable convenience, it is difficult if not impossible for us to imagine the value of a gift like a reuseable menstrual solution. 

These ladies are very familiar with the reuseable kits I have acquired for them. Their communities received kits as gifts for some of the ladies in a few of the villages several years ago and have been using them for over 5 years! They are a life-changing gift! And, the ladies I met are successfully creating kits using a treadle sewing machine when they can gain access to the proper materials. Materials and additional kits have been gifted to them a few times by the church my missionary friend attends in California. When we visited, we brought materials in our luggage. But, production of kits is time consuming and the supplies available are not sufficient to start a business that could become a job source for the ladies who can sew. That means they can only produce kits in their spare time which is scarce at best.

When I returned home, I found a church whose kit producing team had recently lost connectedness to a missionary to Kenya for whom they had been producing kits for several years. I told the ladies in Palawan that I might be able to get 1000 kits. They were overjoyed at the possibility. With 1000 kits they would have enough to serve all the girls and women currently of menstruating age in their community, every village, who do not already have a kit.  

So I have them. 1000 kits boxed up and ready to go. The kits are free to the women and girls in Palawan. But it is not free to ship them. Using the information from my missionary friend I connected with a company which delivers to the resort town, Puerta Princessa and then transports them by various non-traditional means across the island to the village where the ladies live. These ladies travel to all of the villages in their community bringing vaccinations medicines, health training, and literacy training.  During their village health visits available kits are delivered in the context of health training on menstruation and hygiene to the girls and women of each village. What a gift!

It costs $10,000 to send the 1000 kits. That’s $10 a kit. Can you help? Will you help?  

Before I close, I want to address the fact that I studiously did not mention the name of the mission board my friend is attached to or the name of the church whose team produced the 1000 kits, or the name of the organization whose wonderful kit design so very effectively provides a magnificent, long-lasting solution to the need. That is intentional. It is very important that all who decide to give understand they are not buying kits to send, or donating to a missionary, or a church. This project is to raise money for shipping and only for shipping.