Wednesday 19 September 2012

View Point Handmade Gallery Do It In A Dress

The team at View Point Handmade Gallery will be donning school dresses to send girls in Sierra Leone, West Africa to school.


For the month of October View Point Handmade Gallery staff will serve customers, meet artists and attend openings in school uniform. Their mission is to raise $2000 which will give girls in Sierra Leone, West Africa access to education through scholarships, school rehabilitation projects and access to sanitary pads.


Inspired by the quirky nature of the challenge and the cause behind it Jess Cola, the owner and manger at View Point, said “the gallery is always keen to support good organizations that are engaging people in a fun and unique way. We all appreciate the work that One Girl is doing in Africa, and that they are inspiring people to do more.” View Point is also putting the challenge out there to other people in Bendigo – “Join our team, pick your own challenge and Do It in a Dress!”
Do it in a Dress is global movement where individuals and teams sign up to wear a school dress, so that girls in Africa can go to school. In 2011, it’s inaugural year, 77 people from six countries wore a school dress, so that girls in Sierra Leone could wear one too. In 30 days, participants raised an incredible $43,000, which will sent 100 girls in Sierra Leone to school, and provided access to sanitary pads to 147 women. “60 million young girls around the world are not getting an education,” explains Jess Cola. “We can change that by having some fun in a school dress.”


In Sierra Leone, only 1 in 6 girls has the chance to attend high school, and almost one third of the girls born there will be married and pregnant before their 15th birthday. However, when a girl is educated, everything changes. She will marry later and have a smaller, healthier family. For every year she stays in school, she increases her income by 10% and invests 90% of that in her family. “Educating a girl improves the local economy more than any other type of investment.” says Jess.


Last year, Do it in a dress participants wore dresses to run half marathons, perform on the streets, bungee jump and surf the waves. Others simply wore their school dresses for an entire week. View Point plan to serve customers for the month of October in school attire, but they are encouraging others to participate in whatever way they can, Jess says “It doesn’t matter what activity you do, just as long as you do it in a school dress.”


Do it in a dress participants develop their own challenges, publicise them and collect donations by creating a personalised page at doitinadress.com. The Do it in a dress campaign will officially run for them month of October, with people taking part all over the world, including USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy and more! “It’s a really fun way to raise money to give a girl the opportunity to go to school. I would challenge everyone to give it a go! Men AND women can put on a school dress, raise $240 and send a girl in Africa to school, it’s THAT easy. And when you educate a girl, she can change her world” Jess says.


If you’d like to support Jess and the View Point team just head to http://doitinadress.com/jessVPHG
The boss lady serving customers on the 1st day of the challenge


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