{UAH} Rounding up undies

Rounding up undies

• By Jessie Wagoner jessie@emporia.com
• Aug 18, 2017 Updated Aug 18, 2017
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Jessie Wagoner/GazetteJen Newell, Jessica Buchholz, Lisa Buchholz and Debbie Buchholz with a table full of donations for Rounding up Undies. The donations are used to make hygiene kits which will be distributed to young women in Uganda when Lisa Buchholz travels there in September on a medical mission trip.

Jessie Wagoner/GazetteA table is filled with donations of underwear and hygiene supplies which have been collected and will be donated to young women in Africa.

Lisa Buchholz will be traveling to Uganda in a few weeks, and she has been busy packing underwear for the trip — hundreds of pairs of underwear.

She doesn't have an unusual fear of leaving her own underwear behind, rather, she wants to ensure the young women in Uganda have the hygiene products they desperately need. As a pharmacist, she travels with the Medical Missions Foundation, helping to provide needed surgical and medical care to those in need.

"It is mainly a surgical mission where we perform needed surgeries," Buchholz said. "But we also go into the villages and provide what we would consider to be urgent care medical services."

In addition to providing needed medical care, the team also delivers dignity and hope to young women in Uganda by providing hygiene kits. Lack of access to menstrual products affects millions of girls in the developing world. Affordable hygienic menstrual products, if they are even easily available, can cost as much as two day's wages. Women are forced to use improvised materials, such as rags, scraps of old clothing, pieces of foam mattress, toilet paper, leaves and banana fibers to manage their menstruation — all of which are unhygienic, ineffective and uncomfortable. They can also lead to leaks and infections. As many as 10 percent of school-aged girls miss school because of it. The effect of these missed days is devastating, with girls missing up to 20 percent of their education, increasing the likelihood of dropping out, earlier marriage and pregnancy as well as limiting career options.

"Each hygiene kit includes the AFRIpads, reusable sanitary pads, three pairs of underwear, washcloths, a safety whistle and soap, all in a handmade drawstring bag," Buchholz said.

When the Medical Missions Foundation first asked her if she would be willing to help coordinate efforts to put together 100 hygiene kits, she said yes. She then mentioned the effort to her sister-in-law, Jessica Buchholz, and asked her if she would pick up an extra package of underwear to contribute to the cause. Jessica Buchholz also said yes, but took the effort much further.

"She created a secret Facebook group and told her friends about it and named it, 'Rounding up Undies' without telling me," Lisa Buchholz said. "Then people responded and started donating and she called me up and said, 'I did something.' I was really excited."

Jessica Buchholz's secret Facebook post was shared more than 1,000 times and underwear quickly began arriving — everywhere. Jessica Buchholz would return home and find underwear sitting on her porch, packages would arrive on her desk at work and some even showed up at her husband's office.

"I think my husband was a little embarrassed his wife was becoming known around town as the underwear lady," Jessica Buchholz said.

The overwhelming community support has continued and now, three years into the project, more underwear than ever has been donated as well as other needed supplies. Thursday night a group of women from Emporia joined Lisa and Jessica to learn more about the project and assemble hygiene kits. The project has drawn support so easily because it is something to which all women can relate.

"I can't imagine not having the needed supplies and using leaves or old rags," Lisa's mother, Debbie Buchholz, said. "It is simple to pick up an extra package of underwear and help someone."

Debbie Buchholz has contributed to the project in other ways as well. All the handmade drawstring bags which are given to the women to transport their kits must be sewn by someone. Debbie Buchholz and her friends — dubbed the "sew sisters" — have committed to sewing hundreds of bags, which are now ready to be distributed when Lisa Buchholz makes her trip in September.

When the mission embarks on Sept. 7, there will be more than 800 hygiene kits which will be traveling overseas with the group. Lisa Buchholz knows from previous trips how impactful the kits will be on those who receive them.

"When we go there and hear from the girls who have received the kits, they say the same things we promote on the website," Lisa Buchholz said. "They tell us they are able to go to school now and not get made fun of or bleed on a chair. They tell us they can run and play with the other children. They tell us they are no longer getting infections. When you hear it from them, you know it makes a difference."

Jessica Buchholz said the kits can be assembled for just $10 and last up to three years. Even though the mission departs Sept. 7, there is still time to donate online to help the cause and learn more about the project by visiting medicalmissionsfoundation.kindful.com.

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