Total underwear collected is 1,146,221

As you may know, I launched Smalls in 2010 after having taken a volunteering holiday in Ethiopia and discovering that a lack of underwear was a real issue in poor and remote areas, particularly for women and children. Over time, we also sponsored the education of children in Kenya and Malawi. However, as Smalls grew – and with it the need to concentrate our resources – we reviewed our approach to supporting education and decided to do it differently. Rather than sponsoring education directly, we believe we should focus on providing underwear. For example, by working with organisations to provide pants for their hygiene kits, we’re enabling girls to stay in school every day of the month. The children whose education we had supported have either completed their education or are now being supported by their local communities.

Since the last Talking Pants, we managed to finish opening the 6,496 parcels/boxes we received in September and have started to open the 5,282 parcels/boxes we received in October. A little reminder that the address for donations has changed. The address to send all underwear donations now is Five Sisters Business Park, Westwood, West Calder EH55 8PN. Don’t worry if you’ve sent something to 108 Buchanan Crescent as it will still get to us, but going forward please use the Five Sisters Business Park address.

We’ve given 6,620 pairs of pants and bras to 4 organisations since our last Talking Pants. Our thanks to:

• Sarah Black for organising 1,620 pairs of pants to be taken to The William Stewart Foundation in Ibuluma, Northern Malawi.
• Maureen McIntyre and Joan Newbigging for collecting 3,000 pairs of pants and bras for Educate The Kids in Kenya.
• Richard and Sarah Seymour for collecting 1,000 pairs of girls pants for Kibera Farm Project in Kenya.
• And last but not least, 1,000 pairs of pants to Days for Girls for their hygiene kits.

To see some feedback and photos from those who receive your donations, have a look at www.smallsforall.org/why-we-do-this/

We received a cheque from Easyfundraising for £125.94. Thank you to the 537 people who are helping us by using Easyfundraising to raise FREE donations when shopping online. Big thanks to all of you for shopping this way and for kindly spreading the word for us.

Maria