Massachusetts Relief Society sews dresses for African girls

LITTLETON, Mass. — Surrounded by bunches of brightly colored fabrics, a bit of thread and a lot of know-how, the thoughts of a room full of women were half a world away.

On Thursday, June 10, Relief Society sisters of the Littleton Ward, Nashua New Hampshire Stake, along with some young women from the ward, got together for a mid-week activity to sew up simple, colorful little dresses. The dresses' lucky recipients: Girls in poverty-stricken parts of Africa.

\"There's not enough to say about the talented women in this ward,\" said Mandy Ostazewski, who helped organize the activity. \"Everyone does such creative things at home … they all just kind of know what they're doing.\"

In just more than an hour, a scene of industry to rival that of Santa's workshop nearly finished 60 little dresses and got started on plenty more. The finished products will be sent to Little Dresses For Africa, a non-profit Christian-based organization in Brownstown, Mich. The group delivers the handmade dresses to needy girls through orphanages in 13 African countries.

\"This is personally meaningful to me because our family is about to go to Africa for six weeks and do medical volunteer work,\" said Tona Hangen, whose husband is an orthopedic surgeon. \"We won't be taking any of these dresses with us, but we will be seeing the kinds of places where they're going.\"

Ostazewski said she and LeAnn Lindsey, counselor in the Relief Society presidency, both learned about Little Dresses for Africa separately, and then came together to organize the activity for the women in the Littleton Ward.

\"I personally don't know what I'm doing,\" Ostazewski said. \"What was really great was those of us who don't know what we're doing got to learn.\"

The dresses started out as random sheets of fabric donated from the Relief Society sisters' own closets. After a little ironing and a few simple cuts were made, each dress began to take shape at the hands of sisters manning at least a dozen sewing machines.

\"I wish we had more time,\" said Susan Brussard, as she flattened some wrinkles with a hot iron. \"It would be nice if they do this another evening.\"