Sewing in Liberia

Grace Community Center received a grant  from the LWML English district to serve young unwed mothers. Many of these young ladies were pregnant due to circumstances that were not their fault, yet their communities and peers shun them. The Circles of Grace leaders facilitate a group twice weekly to offer friendship, child care education and spiritual guidance. 

One young mother shared how the Circles of Grace gathering saved her and her child's life. Before coming, she was so hopeless that she was considering committing suicide and taking the life of her child.  Now she has hope and feels loved and supported. 

Keep Circles of Grace going! 

Please donate to our General Fund

In response to  COVID-19,  Dignity4Girls released emergency funds in 2020 to support our partners in Kenya and Liberia.

With funding from D4G, the Kenyan enterprise has sewn over 2000 face masks for free distribution in their community. The team has also made liquid hand soap which was distributed through the Grace Community Center. 

The Grace Community Center (GCC) team responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic by using emergency funds to purchase oil and rice. These essential food items were distributed to the community along with eggs from the hen farm.

Funds were also supplied for sponsored students to receive solar lanterns and radios to  keep up with their studies.

During the early months of the pandemic, Liberian church members of Zwedru Lutheran Church were turned away by city officials when they arrived to worship without masks.  D4G provided funds to purchase fabric. 300 masks were sewn so families could safely attend church and shop at crowded outdoor markets.

Due to the pandemic, the new  high school sewing classes have been postponed.  Thankfully, a shipment of over 650 feminine hygiene kits arrived safely in March of 2020 and a new shipment of 541 kits is scheduled to arrive this spring. 

The long awaited shipment of over 1,000 kits  has arrived in Liberia. Boxes of kits have been divided up and sent to several  schools all over the country. 

Many Liberian  teachers are now able to teach their students about feminine hygiene while providing  a product that will allow girls to attend school during their periods. 

These teachers and girls wish to extend their deepest thanks to all who donated their time, effort  and money to create these freedom giving kits.

Thank you Bethlehem Lutheran Church, River Grove, IL for your donation that made this possible! 

Dignity4girls and Sacred Center for Widows and Orphans sponsored a special  F.G.M. Awareness event in Kenya.

WHY: To educate on the dangers of F.G.M. (Female Genital Mutilation)

WHO PARTICIPATED: Educators, widows, women, cutters and girls

OUTCOME: Women and girls spoke openly about the pressures to participate in F.G.M. Educators spoke about the dangers and risks to the young girls at the time of cutting and the long term effects. Cutters expressed their concerns with  other ways to make a living.

FUTURE: Next events: #1: Women and men together, to teach men the dangers since they are the final say in the household
#2: An event with girls and boys. Teaching young boys to support a young girls decision not to be cut.

Kenya- August 2018

A profound title for a camp designed to remove girls from their communities during the traditional tribal FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) cutting ceremonies. This camp allowed the girls an escape from the ritual while also preserving their standing in the community. 

Parents, who had been hiding their girls to protect them, were very grateful and thanked Robert for providing a safe haven while also offering education on topics like feminine health, basic gardening, and the deep love of Christ. 

The opening devotion came from Genesis 17:9–13, inspiring the girls with the knowledge that only men are called to be circumcised—not women. 

96 girls, ages 6-16, attended along with 20 mentors; older adolescent girls who have said “no” to the cutting. A team of 17 social workers and deaconesses carried out the program in a rented school (for sleeping) and nearby church.  

Only a few girls we lucky enough to sleep on beds with nets. Others were on mats on the floor. Thankfully the area had been treated earlier for mosquitos, which can carry malaria. 

Robert would love to someday build a community center with a dormitory on the donated land and have a permeant site for his camps -where all  girls have a bed, blanket and protective net.

• Facility rental is expensive
• Girls were turned away due to space limitations
• Girls arrived without a blanket or a change of clothes

One girl explained that there are 8 in her family and they only own 3 blankets so her mother told her to go and share with a friend. 

WASH stands for improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. Robert Gutwa and his staff implemented this new program in mid-2017 to serve the most vulnerable. They are reaching out to maturing girls and their families by spending three months providing health education and information on the dangers of FGM (Female Genital Multilation), a harmful ritual that is illegal, yet still practiced. 

Sacred Centre for Orphans and Widows also hopes to provide these girls and widows with the much needed feminine hygiene kits, and more underwear and soap. Robert and his team of deaconesses has reached 300 families in the first quarter of WASH! He is currently in his second quarter and needs our financial help to continue this program! $2,500 funds 3 months of WASH! WASH! WASH!