This year, Goods for Good successfully piloted our Tailor-in-Training Workshop, a new program that teachers young adults, many of whom are orphans, how to sew. G4G provides these workshops with excess fabric so that these tailors may improve their craft and meet an important need of the community: new school uniforms.

Many of the children we serve are forced to dropout of school because they cannot afford the uniforms required to attend class. Particularly among the girls, who do not perform odd-jobs in exchange for money for uniforms like the boys, receiving a new school uniform makes a big difference in their lives. ”Getting my new dress was the first time something special has been done for me and it makes me very happy,” said Maclina, a 9-year-old living at G4G-partner St. Mary’s Orphan Care Center.

In just one year, these tailors have created over 22,000 new school uniforms out of 33,000 meters of fabric that would have otherwise gone to waste. As a result, hundreds of community members have an income generating skill and children now have the uniforms required to attend class. As a result of this program, thousands of children have improved self-esteem, are less stigmatized by their peers, and  attend school more regularly.

This holiday season, G4G is teaming up with Merck to bring new school uniforms to 20,000 children in need. Help us reach our goal!

Goods for Good matches excess goods from the United States with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.

In 2008 Goods for Good donated a community center to Nkagamira village to advance early childhood education in the area. This article, recently published in Malawian newspaper The Nation, discusses the centers various purposes and benefits within the community.

Such encouraging and motivating results!

Goods for Goods matches excess goods from the United States with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.

Goods for Good provides material support to 183 community-based organizations, public schools and orphan care centers in Malawi. St. Mary’s Rehabilitation Center was our first program partner in Malawi and receive continuous material support from G4G. It  is currently home to 130 children, many of whom were orphaned by AIDS, and provides essential school support, medical care, and food to hundreds of other children.

This week, G4G Program Manager Patricia Schmiedigen visited St. Mary’s and brought back a wonderful report on their programs and the children they serve:

“What really moved me was how happy and confident the kids at St. Mary’s are. When I arrived, they greeted me warmly and without hesitation. I was also impressed by their wonderful community garden, which supplies enough food for everyone there. Each child receives a perfectly balanced meal in their own bowl with their name on it. The kids were so healthy! I picked up one little girl into my arms and said in Chichewa, “Oh my, you are so big and strong!”   Sister Rosemary, Program Director at  St. Mary’s, looked at me and said “and she is the one on medicine.” This little girl, who was as big and strong as all the others, was born HIV positive and now takes ARVs everyday. I was so impressed by the quality of care the children at St. Mary’s receive.”

Click HERE to see more pictures from St. Mary’s.

Goods for Good matches excess goods from the United States with the needs of orphans and vulnerable children in the developing world.