Service Learning Blog #2

 

Activism: This week I have been working on sewing more of the liners and it has not been easy so far. I am trying to figure out my sewing machine and so far my liners have been slow to be completed; but I am hoping once I get the hang of the machine I can start making them faster. This is definitely an organization I would like to keep volunteering for and I think even after this class is over I would like to keep sewing things for them.

Reflection:  As we’re reading “Are you There God it’s me Margaret?” in class and I’m working on this project to help provide sanitary supplies to women and girls in developing countries who don’t have access to them, it makes me think about how much we are a society of consumption. One quote from Brumberg’s The Body Project that it makes me think of is “At the moment when they begin to menstruate, American girls and their mothers typically think first about the external body; what shows and what doesn’t, rather than about the emotional and social meaning of the maturational process.” (29) It’s not about maturing and becoming a women anymore it becomes more about what products we are going to buy to make sure nothing is shown. Women and girls in these countries don’t even have access to these items we can buy whenever we want and then they have a huge stigma attached to them every time they are menstruating, which makes it even more of an ordeal causing them to lose days of work and school.

Reciprocity: I am glad I decided to work with this organization, they are helping a cause that I feel very strongly about and they have also forced me to finally learn how to use my sewing machine and to do something good with it. I am definitely going to continue my work with them and hopefully can perfect the art of sewing these liners and maybe move on to sewing the shields and the drawstring bags.

Works Cited

Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House, Inc., 1997.