28/5/07

The auctions were a great success and we now have plenty of money raised to post off our pads. I've received the pads from the American pad makers and I'm just waiting on a box of pads donated by pleasurepuss, which will add significantly to the number of pads we have. I was given a list of possible countries to send the pads to (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova), but most have restrictions on what you can send - only items for personal use (and clothing for example is limited to only 3 items)... so I'm not sure what we can do about that. I'm waiting to hear back from our contact to see if they have approval or if that will be a problem. Belarus and Moldova didn't have those restrictions, so we can send them there.

I've added iron on labels to the waterproofed AIO pads (To show their absorbency), which were kindly donated by www.mynamelabel.com and I'm starting to package up the pads in bundles that can be given to each woman at the other end. I've realised I didn't include washing instructions in my instructions, so I'm redoing them.

We may have to purchase ziplock bags to put the individual bundles of pads in.... I think tying them with ribbon/twine will be harder to hand out and bits may fall out, and with ziplock bags the air can be squeezed out to compact the bundles and take up less space. I can buy them at about 20c a bag though, which is the cheapest option for packaging - even though it is not the best enironmentally (though they can be reused).

Pad tally:
190 pads made by me (and I've got some more belted pads to sew up)... AIO, belted, base + insert & pocket styles
100 AIO pads donated by Lily pads (Aus)
31 AIO pads donated by Kirsten (Aus)
52 base + insert pads donated by Lori (Aus)
5 AIO pads donated by (I've forgotten!) (Aus)
31 AIO pads donated by Cathy
5 Base + Insert pads donated by (Unknown) (USA)
16 base + Insert pads donated from (unknown) (USA)
13 inserts donated by (unknown) (USA)

Total: 443

{1 box (100-200) of Pleasurepuss AIO pads on its way...}

+ Pads collected in New Zealand