Throw into linen drive
YOUR old towels and bedsheets could make all the difference in the world to impoverished women living on the Australia-Papua New Guinea border.
An FNQ-wide ‘linen drive’ organised by RRRC Connect in partnership with Soroptimists International Cairns Club will aim to supply communities in Papua New Guinea’s Treaty Village area with much-needed cloth.
Linen donations will be collected over a five-week campaign at several points around Cairns, including Hambledon House in Edmonton, the Girl Guides Hut in Manunda and Smithfield Library. Collection will run from 9.30am to 12.15pm every Saturday, starting today and continuing until December 3.
Anyone with clean or useful linen like bedspreads, sheets, towels, cloth nappies or even tea towels can donate.
Cairns-based shipping company SeaSwift will provide transport services.
Linen is a much-overlooked vital material in impoverished communities and has a wide variety of immediate uses, including as bed coverings, bandages, sanitary pads, infant swaddling and more.
The linen drive ties into a wider aid development program in the Treaty Villages managed by the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre and funded by the Australian Government. Under that program, 52 rangers have been trained in a wide variety of community development skills.