Dressing girls around the world

Every day, in every country, there are young girls living in poverty who are dressed in rags, feeling little or no self worth. About a year ago, Hermosa area resident Cathy Dahl learned about “Dress A Girl Around the World” from a friend.
Dress a Girl Around the World is a Campaign under Hope 4 Women International, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization  bringing dignity to women around the world since 2006. Hope 4 Women International is a nondenominational independent Christian organization. It dreams of a world in which every girl has at least one new dress and wants girls to know that they are worthy of respect, and that they are loved by God.
Dahl brought the idea of getting involved to the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (WELCA) group at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Hermosa. The group decided to make it one of their mission projects.
The group allotted money to purchase fabric and notions as well as finding donations of supplies. Some patterns and tutorials were available free at dres
sagirlaroundtheworld.com and others were purchased. The women planned work days and broke into groups to trace patterns, cut fabric, iron and sew.
Dress A Girl Around the World has area ambassadors who collect the dresses and find churches or individuals going on mission trips to deliver the dresses. Dahl found out that there were no ambassadors for our area and volunteered to be the ambassador for the Black Hills. She met Reverend Reginald and Pastor Johnetta Lewis from the Open Bible Church in Sturgis when her husband was selling his motorcycle and learned that their church takes an annual mission trip to Mexico.
The first place to send dresses was discovered. Together, the WELCA group made 44 dresses by the time the mission trip took place. Actually, you could say more than 44 dresses because several of them were double-sided – two dresses in one. The group will take a short break over the summer butplan to start up on making dresses again in the fall.
If anyone would like to support the WELCA group with this mission, it would appreciate fabric donations (quality 100 percent cotton), thread, seam binding, etc. And of course, volunteers. Being a member of the church or WELCA is not required to help.
The group is looking for more church mission trips willing to deliver dresses. This includes missions anywhere—including the U.S.
The group just received seven dresses from two women in Texas who asked the dresses be donated to the Pine Ridge Reservation.
For more information contact Dahl at mutti
dahl@yahoo.com or visit dressagirlaroundtheworld.com.