Home > Talking Pants > Talking Pants – October 2019

Total underwear collected is 1,139,601

We’ve noticed some information being shared about Smalls on social media that contain misinformation which we’re desperately keen to put right. While we know that having underwear helps people in many ways, we don’t claim that it would prevent attack or rape. We collect underwear because – for example – having pants means women can stay at their work and girls can stay in school each month. It’s also not the case that we collect well-worn bras as they’re not fit for purpose. Unfortunately, we incur the expense of disposing of them as we’re not aware of any organisation in the UK that’s able to recycle the textiles. That’s why (as well as brand new pants) we only collect new or gently worn bras that still have good wear left in them.

Where we see the wrong information we try to have it corrected, but that’s not always easy. To find out more about what we do and why, please see: https://www.smallsforall.org/why-we-do-this/

It’s wonderful to have the support of so many kind and generous people – we just want to make sure they know what we collect and why, and that we can use what people send us. If you see or hear anyone talking about any of the points above, could you help us by directing them to the official Smalls Facebook page or our website?

Great progress has been made in opening the small mountain of donations. Since the last Talking Pants, we managed to finish opening the July donations and open ALL 6,767 parcels/boxes received in August! We’ve now started opening the 6,496 parcels/boxes we received in September.

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 2,823 pairs of new pants to 5 organisations since our last Talking Pants.
Our thanks to:

  • Hannah Wallis from The Widows Gift in Kenya. 190 pairs of pants for the girls and boys supported by this project.
  • Victoria El-Bays for organising 600 pairs of pants to be taken to Edfu, Egypt. The pants will be given to girls along with sanitary pads.
  • Sally Rae and Gill Ferguson for collecting 603 pairs of pants to be taken to The 500 miles Prosthetic and Orthotic centre in Lilongwe, Malawi.
  • Jessica Colman of Danceaid for taking 330 pairs of pants to South Africa. The pants will be given to the girls and boys in the orphanage run by Danceaid.
  • And last but not least, 1,100 pairs of pants to Days for Girls for their hygiene kits.

In the last 30 days, 19 more people have started doing their online shopping through Easyfundraising to raise FREE donations for Smalls. We now have 514 people doing their online shopping this way and, between them, they’ve raised £114.95 in the past month alone without it costing them a penny extra! Huge thanks to all of you for shopping this way and for kindly spreading the word for us.

If you’ve not discovered this wonderful option yet, please sign up and raise free donations for us at https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/smallsforall And don’t forget to download the Donation Reminder (for PC/laptop) which makes sure Smalls never misses out on a donation by alerting you if the retailer you’re shopping with will donate. You’ll see a reminder on your screen, simply click it to activate and you’ll raise a donation every time you shop. Or to raise donations on mobile, try the App.

Just thought with Christmas looming I would remind you about Easyfundraising if you’re thinking about online shopping…

Maria