Love our colorful bird logo? There is meaning in that beauty…
Have you ever wondered why we chose an outlandishly colorful bird as our logo? Here’s the scoop!
The Girls Matter Period logo is based on the lilac-breasted roller, one of the most beautiful birds living in South Africa. Heather Dittmar (a great supporter of GMP and illustrator of Afia’s Tale) designed our symbol with these things in mind:
Lilac-breasted rollers live in South Africa like many of the girls and women we serve.
The female lilac-breasted roller is just as colorful and beautiful as the male. We help girls have equal opportunities as the boys and not be disadvantaged because of a natural, bodily function.
Lilac-breasted rollers are fierce & unafraid. We encourage girls to finish school and to reach for their dreams.
Rollers are strong defenders of their homes, their young, and their territory. Empowered and educated young women become competent leaders in their homes and communities.
Lilac-breasted rollers are monogamous and share parenting responsibilities. We teach the importance of waiting to have children until girls have partners who are committed 100% to them and to their offspring.
The many colors of the bird’s plumage reflect the beauty and diversity of the girls and women we serve.
The roller in our logo is soaring upward signifying the empowerment of girls and women through our outreach.
The globe shows that GMP’s efforts are not limited to any one country. Although we serve the people of South Africa primarily, our products may be distributed worldwide.
10-11-2024 - Girls Matter Period Distribution in Limpopo (Sept 2024)
Kally Reynolds, Thank you for voicing your feelings about the GMP outreach trip to Blessman International in Limpopo so eloquently. Well said, it was a life changing experience.
From Kally: My experience with you all was earth-shattering! Literally, blowing away the barriers I hadn't even known I had. I am still grappling with this.
Those girls and, indeed, all the children we met (not to mention the "Lions and Tigers and Bears, O my!" to quote Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) will forever live in my heart and mind.
And as for the hospitality, the kindness, thoughtfulness, the laughter and the delicious dinners, I was again reminded of words in Jesus's prayer: Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...
And so it is....
Love and thanks in Christ,
Kally
08/29/2024 - One Year of Personal Pack Frenzy!
This month marks one year since we assembled our first Girls Matter Period Personal Packs. What a terrific year we have had with the support from all of our volunteers! At the Gold Canyon workshop on Thursday we packed an additional 230 kits, did sewing and prep work for our September workshops and had a little celebration.
I cannot say enough great things about all of you who support Girls Matter Period in various ways. The awesome part of this is that in September 2,100 girls in the Limpopo area will be receiving education and menstrual kits meant to last them 3 - 5 years. You are all changing lives!
For those of you who are part of workshops in Gold Canyon, Mesa, and the surrounding area, we completed 900 kits since starting the GMP patterns. The kits made available for this trip also come from teams in Minnesota, Tempe AZ, Iowa Blessman International Teams and Lethabo Sewing Center in Limpopo. The total GMP kits assembled during the past year are expected to exceed 2,300!
Please keep our 2024 GMP Distribution/Outreach Team in your thoughts and prayers as we journey to South Africa laden with the fruits of our efforts from the past year. On the Outreach Team we have 15 volunteers and also 7 Blessman International South African employees who will be working together to reach the girls.
05/25/2024 - Personal Packs assembled March and April
Our winter season in Arizona ended with a spectacular 550 personal packs assembled and sent with volunteers traveling through Iowa to Blessman International. What a blessing our first year of Girls Matter Period has been!
Our volunteers have cut, pressed, ironed, and sewn thousands of components since our new patterns were developed. Thank you so much to those who attend our workshops and sew from home. Your dedication to better the lives of the girls in Limpopo is inspiring.
It gets better though…this is only part of the story. Workshops in Minnesota went on all winter also. They will have 300 personal packs ready to transport to Limpopo very soon. We have another group from Tempe Arizona that has started work and committed to 300 more personal packs. Members of their team will join us on the outreach in September. We have also received beautiful product from friends in Wisconsin and a youth group in Michigan.
The sewists in Limpopo are busy adding to our total kits for distribution as well as some wonderful groups in Iowa through Blessman International. Paula estimates that we will have 2,500 personal packs ready for distribution in September. That is 2,500 girls who will also receive the education necessary for them to understand what is happening to their bodies as they mature.
So…let the summer workshops begin as we transition to a new season.
01/17/2024 - BUNCO because GIRLS MATTER PERIOD announced
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12/08/2023 - Successful Workshops This Week
Thank you to all those who joined us November 30th at the Gold Canyon United Methodist Church Workshop, December 5th at Mad B’s Quilt and Sew, December 6th at Quilters Point of View, and workshops that started at Canyon Vistas Resort in Gold Canyon.
The amount of sewing and the attention to detail was amazing! Special thanks to all those that brought sewing machines and worked diligently on the materials that were made ready before the workshops and during the workshops by even more dedicated volunteers that are non-sewists.
Special thanks to Thrivent also. Each of the events was a Thrivent workshop. Thrivent is a financial company that provides seed money for workshops (used to purchase materials) designated by their membership as Action Team events. The very popular t-shirts were available to all those who participated.
We have more workshops coming up as the winter season unfolds in Arizona and in Minnesota. Check our calendar for locations and times.
11/12/23 - It is Official! Our New Nonprofit Organization: Girls Matter Period
We are excited to introduce Girls Matter Period, Inc. Our new nonprofit organization empowers girls and women by providing important education and Girls Matter Packs – washable/reusable feminine hygiene products made to last 3-5 years on average.
Although our corporation is new, our volunteer team is not. We have been supplying kits through organizations like Blessman International and Days for Girls International since 2015.
Most volunteers focus on making kit components and producing the Girls Matter Packs. However, some team members take the “trip of a lifetime” and actually deliver the packs to girls and women in South Africa and elsewhere.
The girls get more than the much-needed feminine health supplies, they also receive invaluable education about menstrual health, their importance and worth as females, and encouragement to stay in school through graduation.
Girls Matter Period offers an effective, yet inexpensive, solution – less than $10 per kit – that can change the trajectory of girls’ lives and end the cycle of poverty!
Learn more about how you can be part of the difference. Click here for How to Get Involved.
10/25/23 - WE CAN DO THIS WITH YOUR HELP!
Our goal is to provide 3,000 GMP Packs for Paula’s September 2024 Outreach Team to South Africa. This includes 6,000 waterproof bases, 36,000 flannel inserts, 3,000 cinch sacks, 3,000 washcloths and 6,000 pairs of panties!
Do you belong to clubs or have friends who would begin sewing Girls Matter Period components? Are you interested in volunteering?
Click here for our pattern information and donations.
We would love to hear from you!
10/24/23 - VOLUNTEERS KEEP US GOING!
Our volunteers are awesome! We appreciate each and every one of you. You may think our advocates and volunteers are all women but that is not true. It takes many talents to keep our wheels greased. Today I offer a shout out of appreciation to our Web Designer and advocate Tyson Fahey, a devoted guy and advocate Brian Carlson who keeps us on a straight path with his legal advice and compassion for others, my husband Sam Plaski who makes patterns, sharpens scissors, takes me shopping when I need the help, and stays supportive, even when parts of our house look like a storage warehouse.
Then we have the numerous men who have gone on outreach trips to South Africa, gone many miles out the their way as they traverse the U.S. to make deliveries for us, have rolled hundreds of panties, turned hundreds of components that were being sewed, brought deliveries inside when I am out of town…and the list goes on. Thank you for all you continue to do to support the Girls Matter Period Mission!
Tammy
