Total underwear collected is 2,377,638
Thank you for sending us a pantastic 1,392 parcels in May.
Since our last Talking Pants, we’ve provided new pants and new & gently worn bras to 5 organisations:
- 301 pairs of pants to the Thondwe Girls Project, providing girls from Thondwe Primary School near Zomba in Malawi with hygiene kits.
- 910 pairs of pants to The School Bank in West Lothian.
- 240 pairs of pants and bras to Happy Baby Community, an organisation supporting pregnant and young mothers in London.
- 300 pairs of pants Care4Calais (Slough/Heathrow).
- 225 pairs of pants to Waakisa Ministries in Uganda.
Thanks to you, we were recently able to provide underwear to Madison Lindeman, a PhD student in Global Political Economy. Madison is currently based in Mbarara, Uganda, conducting her doctoral research which focuses on how women experience menstruation in their daily lives. This mainly includes women who live or work in informal environments, such as housewives, sex workers, market workers, etc. Back in February, Madison told us, “The underwear will be donated to women living in Mbarara, Uganda. I am working with other organisations, such as Period Talk Uganda, where we host menstrual education sessions in Mbarara and Kampala. With this donation, we can organise a session in a slum or village within Mbarara City where menstrual education will be provided in an effort to reduce menstrual stigma. In addition, underwear will be distributed alongside reusable menstrual pads. Women do face the challenge here of owning/purchasing quality underwear alongside the additional challenge of purchasing menstrual pads each month. I am also working with health centres in Mbarara City that work with vulnerable and marginalised populations, and the underwear would also be distributed to women seeking health services at this centre if there is extra after hosting an outreach session.”
Madison has since come back to us with some photos and to say, “Thanks again for the donation – Period Talk Uganda held the event in collaboration with Action for Improved Health and Wealth on April 26th in Kijungu area in Mbarara, Uganda. We were able to distribute underwear, reusable pads, and soap to 150 female sex workers. We were also able to get approximately 30 male sex workers to attend the event to help provide sexual and reproductive health education as well as working to destigmatise menstruation.”
We were also able to provide underwear to Togs for Tots in Dundee, a baby and children’s clothing and equipment bank providing essential clothing for children living in poverty 0-18yrs. The organisation’s Linda Arnot told us, “We include new pants in every referral package so this huge donation of ‘smalls’ will make such a difference to the families we provide for. Every child deserves the dignity of having sufficient, well-fitting underwear.”
We’re proud to have been one of the many charities supported by the incredible Speedo Mick – a former homeless man who’s raised over £1 million for causes close to his heart, including mental health, disadvantaged young people, and homelessness. In 2023, Mick generously donated £2,000 to Smalls for All, helping us provide underwear to people in need, because sometimes, it’s the smallest things that can make the biggest difference. Now his remarkable journey is even being told on stage. Thank you Mick for all you do!
As always, thank you all for supporting Smalls,
Maria
P.S.
If you’d like to donate, you can do so here: https://www.smallsforall.org/get-involved/donate-money/
Or
Donate pants the easy way: https://www.smallsforall.org/buy-to-give/
