Summer Meetings: Sunday, July 16 at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, August 13 at 10:30 a.m. Members of Westminster Presbyterian Women (WPW) and all interested women are invited to two summer meetings to develop WPW fall plans and to provide sample reusable and durable menstrual hygiene kits for girls at two Westminster mission sites — the Hope Mission School in Liberia and the M.O.M. Orphanage in Sierra Leone. Contacts are being made by Felicia Kollie-Gambles and Fatmata Hilton. The group’s interest was sparked by: Rev. Ruth Everhart, author and preacher who visited Westminster in May and who specifically mentioned school days lost by girls who do not have access to appropriate menstrual hygiene supplies. Lyn Kucij, a member of Westminster’s 2016 Liberia travel team and an active participant in The MoonCatcher Project. In 2016 the MoonCatcher Project donated 35 kits for Hope Mission. This June WPW leaders met with Lyn and Ellie von Wellsheim, founder of The MoonCatcher Project, to learn about the experiences that shaped the design of their kits. (http://mooncatchers.weebly.com/) Felicia Kollie-Gambles and Anita Opoku-Asante, WPW co-moderators are encouraging members to plan to talk and sew at two summer meetings Sunday, July 16, 10:30 a.m. and Sunday, August 13, 10:30 a.m. Sewing machines last used by Westminster guilds in the 1990’s will be available. Contact the Church office: Sign up to make reusable pads or waterproof bags for the pads either at the meeting or at home Email office@wpcalbany.org or phone 518-436-8544 for more information Ways to help: Attend our meetings on July 16 & August 13 at 10:30 a.m. Donate clean cotton flannel, fleece or jersey fabric the size of a sheet of typing paper. Bring the squares to the July 16 WPW meeting at or give them to someone who will attend. Donate money to WPW to help fund the project. (Checks payable to Westminster Presbyterian Church; memo: WPW) Felicia Kollie Gambles, Westminster Ruling Elder, chairs the Church’s Committee for Hope Mission School in Bernard Farm, Liberia. Felicia is currently Co-moderator of the Presbyterian Women’s group at Westminster and is Co-chair of the annual African Spring Dinner event. She was born in Liberia and fled from there in November 1990 during the country’s civil war — spending six months in a Sierra Leone refugee camp before coming to the US in May 1991. She is a graduate of Cuttington University in Liberia and an active members of the Cuttington University Alumni Association. After graduation from Cuttington, she worked with Firestone Rubber Plantation Company as an accountant. She is now an information technology specialist/computer programmer for the New York State Office of Information Technology Services. She served on the WPC associate pastor search committee and is a former officer of the Liberian American Association. She and her two daughters live in Latham.
Hygiene Kits for Girls in West Africa
