I've got your bum covered

Something that shocked and saddened me was the fact the many girls don't go to school when they menstruate as they dont have anything to catch their blood. This can lead to falling behind in education, dropping out of school and continuing the cycle of poverty. How sad to think that if they had some undies and a pad, it would make a difference.

Cambodia is poverty stricken. Bare minimum, and a lot of the time it seems that there is not even that. Denise said something to me which reminded me just how much I take for granted. And how fortunate I am. She said "Yesterday when I sent a new mum and her brand newborn baby home on the back on the motorbike, I dreamed that she had a pair of undies on and a pad between her legs."

Enough said.

So, I've been on a bit of a mission to get some undies and pads for these women.

I have been blessed to be aquainted with some pretty spirited people whose hearts are as passionate as my own.

The beautiful Jo has really gone above and beyond and organised a get together with some other wonderful women and had a craft day sewing cloth menstrual pads. In my mind, I was thinking they may do 40. Maybe 50. Definitely not much more than that! Imagine my surprise and complete excitement when it was announced that they reached the 100 mark!! A few days later, the number kept climbing even further! Once they were done, I got this little message from Jo:

"I'm so proud and ecstatic to announce on behalf of fabric, PUL, snap and cloth donations from Emily of Happy Nappy, Esther from Ferny Hills, Sarah MaClean, Sarah Leslie, Natalie McQueen AND the time and skill donations of seamstresses Loz Woods, Veronica INgram, Kintara Phillips, Victoria, Leah Timms, Ben Dechrau and Myself (Jo Dechrau) - we created together 155 cloth menstrual pads." 


So many cloth pads were created with the hands of hearts of these beautiful people! Hours and hours of crafting these beautiful bits of material for the women of Cambodia. I feel like I am bursting with pride!

Mil Islas, Paisley Ring (people who I don't even know, but are sharing their time and heart for this!!) and Sazz Langford also got their hands and hearts busy and sent me some of their own cloth menstrual pads.

In total I now have almost 200 cloth menstrual pads to take over to Cambodia!

Here are some photo's of what can be done when you put your passion to a sewing machine!

Look at all these pads in the making! Following 3 photos are from Jo. You can look at her blog HERE

 

Goddesses At Work!

155 pads!!

On Saturday, a work colleague of mine, who is going to Cambodia today (!!) to volunteer with LifeOptions came and picked up 100 of these babies to pack as she had some room in her lugguge! Those cloth pads will be flying to Cambodia right now as I type!

Also, I've been asking everyone for undies. They have been arriving slowly but surely in the post. Today my 2 year old and I counted them all. After counting it 3 times, (my 2 year old kept confusing me lol), I have had 141 pairs of undies donated to me to take over. How amazing is that!?!?! All those women whose life will be changed because they now own a pair of undies! I am still accepting donations up until around 15th June, so keep sending them in! I've got 27kgs of lugguge and i plan to use it!

These 80 pairs of undies were donated by one person!! Thankyou Sarah Shortt

Thankyou to those who are generous. Thankyou to those whose spirits sing to the same tune as mine. Thankyou to those whose heart is in the same place as mine.

So, women of Cambodia, it's not long now. I've got your bum covered!

Week of Wonder

There has been wonderful generosity shown state wide in the last week towards my volunteering adventures in Cambodia. I have a box of stationary - pens, paper, pencils, textas, amoungst other goodies that was donated by a friend who is off on an adventure of her own to an orphanage in Bali. She got more boxes of stationary donated than she could take over, so she passed one on to me to take.

I've had undies in the postbox from people I know and people I dont know, both from victoria and from interstate. Zip lock bags, gloves, bandages. 2nd hand kids clothes. It is piling up and looking fantastic!

Donations of money have been put into an account with the hope of reaching $2000 so that we can fund a Tuk Tuk Ambulance for the women and babies in desperate need of medical assistance. I love recieving emails which say 'I want to donate!'. It makes my heart sing. Every dollar helps and changes lives of women, families, villages, communities.

Courtney has made jars of delicious tomato relish and nectarine & ginger jam and has donated them to me to sell with all money going straight towards the ambulance. Steven bought the first jar, as he is a bit of a relish fan, and I am guessing he will buy one or two more too. He may end up funding half the Tuk Tuk if he keeps eating all the relish ;) Books have been donated and chillies have been picked from my garden and bunched up to sell. As I have already said, every little bit helps.

On Saturday 2 really awesome events occured in honour of the volunteering work I am doing and the peoples in Takeo. Firstly, we screened a documentary called Babies, which was a gorgeous little film that followed 4 babies from birth across the first year of their lives. There weren't many attendees, there were around 8-10 of us, but those who came loved the film, loved the atmosphere, loved the cause and we raised $120. Thank you to those who came - your support fills my heart and Im sure the hearts of women in Cambodia!

Secondly, a group of gorgeous women (and 1 spunky man I believe, plus a tribe of children) who hold the same passionate heart as my own, created a day of sewing and made many, many menstrual cloth pads for me to take over. Women in Cambodia often dont attend school when they are bleeding as they dont have anything to catch their blood. This in turn leads them to fall behind in their studies, dropping out of school and thus continuing the cycle of poverty. Cloth pads can obviously help this situation. Who ever would of thought that cloth pads can be an essential part in ending poverty!?! Anyway, this amazing feat deserves a blog post of its own, so for now I shall leave you  with a picture of what these people of spirit created!

Peace, Love and Passion!

Xo

changing plans

Amazing how a week can change things so much.

Courtney and her daughters are no longer coming. It is not the right time for them. We had a chat about going together at a different time, early next year. I sat with that idea for awhile. It felt warped and twisted and didn't sit easily with me.

I laughed and cried and yelled. I felt sad at the thought of Courtney not coming with me and I know she feels the same way too. We cry for the journey we have lost together. But we also know that we have a long life together ahead of us and we can journey together another time.

As for me, my heart can't wait. It is burning out of my chest, the timing is now, I have to go now. Recognising and responding to the call of your spirit is wild and authentic - and the best way to live by.

So Myah and I will still be going. Journeying across the waters to support sisters who need it.

I need your help to fundraise. I want to get $2000 which will buy a Tuk Tuk Ambulance for the villages I will be at. It will help transport women and bubbas who urgently need care and will save lives.

If you could help with donations, please email me at sheree@birthsong.com.au
I am also holding fundraisers during the month of May and June so if you are interested, please drop me a line and I can give you more info :)

Here is a picture of the tuk tuk ambulance that I want to raise enough money for. Help out your sisters across the water and donate to help save liives of Mummas and babies

Give us your undies!

After the absolutely horrific genocide in the late 1970's - 1980's, the gentle people of Cambodia are striving to regain their community, peace, health and education.  Many of the skilled birth attendants were killed in the genocide and I am not exactly sure what sort of care a women now recieves who is pregnant or labouring.


Poverty is  also a massive issue in Cambodia. Living on next to nothing per day is the pits and seeing humans living in such conditions is heartbreaking and soul shattering. If you are female, it seems to isolate and restrict you even further in the world you live in.

From what I know, many of the girls stop attending school during the time they menstruate, simply because when they bleed they don't have sanitary items, so choose to stay home for this time. This of course makes them fall behind in their studies, with a high possibility of them dropping out of education. Thus continuing the cycle of poverty.

A VERY SIMPLE and life altering donation suggestion from Life Options Inc. has been that we donate underwear! New, cotton undies, from sizes 8 - 12 in adults and all kids sizes.  Giving underwear seems almost silly in our western culture of abundance and overconsumersim, but for many women, giving them a new, clean pair of underwear will make a difference on whether or not they get an education and break the cycle of poverty. 


Cloth pads are also massively useful. If you are able to donate some cloth pads, whether you sew or buy them, we promise you that the women of Cambodia will enormously appreciate it! We have started a facebook group for this, so if you want more details please click HERE and it will give you info and details on what to do, how to make them and where to send them to :) I just want to say a big thankyou to some women who have taken this mission on with a passion and are organising cloth pad sewing sessions as I type! - so thankyou to Jo, Sazz, Sarah, Kint and Loz! I know there is many more, and you will all get a public declaration of our love as well, once you send us the goods!! ;)


It is amazing that what we take for granted and what we think is 'just the basics' is something that many women around the world don't have. To be honest, I have NEVER linked underwear and education together until a couple weeks ago. To realise that young women wont go to get an education if they dont have underwear to wear when they menstruate and thus continuing the cycle of poverty breaks my heart. We can do something about this. And we can do it right now. 


Send us some undies!


New, cotton undies, size 6 -12 adult and any kids sizes. The Cambodian girls and women arent fussy and will take any color or prints! If you are interested in doing so, drop me an email and i can give you an address for one of the few drop off points around Melbourne that you can take them too. Alternatively, you can post them to us as well. Just give us an email!
Xo

Also, I just wanted tos hare a quick little story about underwear. When I went to my favourtie cafe the other day, I had let people know I would be there, so if they wanted to drop off donations for the trip then they would know where to drop them off. I was wondering around with my daughters, over near the sandpit, going to get a seat, when I heard a beautiful friend yell out "Hey, Sheree, I have some undies for you!" I was very excited about it and I know I made heads turn as Georgia pulled out 3 packets of cotton undies from her bag and handed them to me. My face lit up with excitement as I exclaimed at how excited I was to be getting undies from her :) I put them in my bag and told her how I was so thrilled to be given underwear, in a cafe midmorning on a wednesday :) So, it is all beautiful sisters! Let's help our Cambodian sister out by giving thems some undies and breaking the cycle of poverty and strengthening the bond of sisterhood, community and civilisation on a whole 


Xo

The end is the beginning is the end

The year 2011 has been a strange one. One of ups and down, ups and downs and ups and downs again. Ecstatic highs, desperate lows and everything in between.

Although it wasn't really, but it felt like it was, Sheree's  really awesome and amazing man, Steven, suggested she contact Denise Love about going to Cambodia.

Steven had mentioned it before during the year and I had always brushed it off, but this time when he said it, it made my heart sing. It felt perfect. I sent Denise a short and sweet email that went something like 'Hi Denise, I want to Cambodia very soon. Is it safe?  Can my baby come? She has attended births and usually lives in a sling on me anyway'. And I pressed send. And waited. She replied half an hour later with an 'oh yes, yes, yes' and I knew that was it. Screw the logistics. It will all work. My heart was on fire, it was so bright and full. Myah and I are going to Cambodia for a month, in about a month!

I am a Mumma to 5 awesome, wild, freespirited children and Steven will be staying at home with 4 of them. He is a loving, capable father and husband and is very excited about his adventures as stay at home Dad (He has been the stay at home Dad for longer than I have been the stay at home Mum). My baby who is 6 months will be travelling with me on the plane across the water to live and learn amongst the gentle peoples of Cambodia.

I let the people closest to me know of my sudden decision and although some of them reacted very differently to how I was hoping, the majority of people have been so loving, supportive and generous. So loving, supportive and generous in fact, that one of my closest sister women, Courtney, has decided to come with me, along with her 2 young daughters! I was in the cyber world on Facebook when a little message that said 'my partner said I can come to Cambodia!!!!' popped up on the screen, and all I could reply was 'really, are you really coming, is that real, is that really real, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow'.  And so we are going together! Team Smart! (We are called Team Smart because Courtney and I have attended births together and run workshops together and when I told this to my children, one of them said 'Youse should be called Team Smart! And we agree!)

I think Courtney and I first met Denise Love at the same time, which was one week after I had just done an amaaaazing bike ride across Ethiopia to raise money for a hospital and women's cliniic in the Ethiopian Highlands. I went to do a Hypnochildbirth course and Denise was teaching it and I fell in love with her straight away. She was very down to earth, passionate and had the belief that we all have the right to live our lives as we choose, with love, happiness and respect. I knew in my heart that we would journey together one day - and now we will be! Denise is the one who has set up LifeOptions Inc. and has initiated some amazing work and healthcare for the people in Cambodia.

When Courtney and I go there, we are going to live and work in villages in developing countries to share skills, learn new ones, and develop an environment for a healthy sustainable life style. I am a registered midwife and doula and Courtney is a doula so there is plenty for us to share and do there. There is a birth centre, a school, many orphans and many families that will benefit from us going, and for us - it will give us a whole new perspective on life as we get to spend and share some of our life with them. They will change our lives forever.

Stay tuned for our post about what we are doing to fundraise before we go and how you can help us!!

In the meantime, we have events of facebook here, here and here if you are keen to see what we are doing!

Xo