Total underwear collected is 945,522

Congratulations to Fiona Spark, winner of the February lottery.

The collected figure last month was 911,722 so, looking at this month’s figure, you can tell we’ve been busy at the warehouse! Since the start of 2019, instead of 2 sorting days a week we’ve been doing 3 to try to catch up on the backlog of opening and sorting. If you sent us your email address but haven’t yet received an acknowledgement, please bear with us. I’m hoping we’ll finish opening donations received in December this week, and will start on January next week. If anyone who lives locally would like to join us at the warehouse, please email me. You would be most welcome!

We were delighted to provide underwear for the first time to 3 organisations this month! Our thanks to Peter Sarl, director of Kibera Farm Project in Kenya, for organising the collection and distribution of 500 pairs of new pants to girls they work with in Kibera. 300 pairs of new pants are on their way to Uganda; they’ll be taken and distributed by a Shawfair surgeon who is going to help repair fistulas. And, lastly, 80 bras are on their way to Gonder in Ethiopia courtesy of Health Action Leicester for Ethiopia (HALE).

Our thanks also to Paul McNeil, director of operations & human resources for the Gloag Foundation, for stopping in to see us in Livingston. He didn’t go away empty handed, as he was collecting 12,000 pairs of new pants for the Aberdeen Women’s Centre in Freetown. This centre provides the only comprehensive fistula repair service in Sierra Leone and has the capacity to treat up to 300 fistula patients a year.

For details of where all your donations go, please have a look at our underwear timeline.

My thanks to Kenneth Melville, international convener Greenock Rotary, and the Greenock Rotary Club for organising a pants appeal for the third year in a row. Their appeal was a huge success, supported by many individuals, schools and businesses, and I was delighted to collect 5,643 pairs of pants from them yesterday.

Thank you so much to everyone who has made an underwear or financial contribution to support our work. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. We hugely appreciate each and every donation and your help is making a real difference.

Maria