Still making dresses for little African girls
Cecile Miller, Kay Hannigan, Mary Burton, and Helen Godreau
-by Rankin MacDonald
Since they began making dresses for little African girls, members of St. Patrick’s CWL have sent almost 450 dresses since they began sewing in 2016.
This year, Cecile Miller, Kay Hannigan, Mary Burton, Helen Godreau, and Collette MacDonnell have broken all their records by sewing 150 dresses and The Blanchard Girls have contributed 38 dresses to the cause.
In 2016, they created 39 dresses full of colour and life, then in 2017 they jumped to 105, in 2018 they reached 110, and this year they created 150.
They go to Mass at 10:00 a.m. and at 11:00 a.m. they are ready to work until about 4:00 p.m. from November to May.
They also included 300 pairs of underwear.
Cecile got the pattern from her sister, Yvonne Kilfoil, who takes them to Atlantic Fabrics to be sent on to Africa.
With the little girls in these dresses it says they are loved and cared for and are then less likely to be harmed by male predators.
Little Dresses for Africa was founded in 2008 by Rachel O’Neill of Michigan, USA.
Their mission is to provide relief to vulnerable girls throughout Africa and beyond.
Little girls are extremely vulnerable in Africa and on an almost daily basis face the threat of rape, exploitation, and even death at the hands of men who prey on them. Many of these vulnerable young girls have been orphaned because of the AIDS epidemic still raging there.
