Changing lives one little dress at a time

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[This year the Illinois Association for Home and Community Education (IAHCE) promoted a statewide project of making "Little Dresses for Africa."

The Randolph County Homemakers Education Association (HEA) decided to invite the 4-Hers to participate in the project. On Nov. 11, ten girls came to the Randolph County Farm Bureau Office, and each one sewed a dress.

NBC featured the "Little Dresses for Africa" project on Dec. 1. It reported that the Little Dresses for Africa is a nonprofit Christian organization which provides relief to the children of Africa. Simple dresses are made and distributed there to the girls.

It began with a woman from Michigan who started making the dresses after a small group of ladies had returned from a short term mission trip to Malawi. They made simple little dresses out of pillow cases. The project continued to grow. To date dresses have been received from all over the United States. Well over 100,000 little dress have been distributed in 16 countries in Africa.

The dresses that were made here were sewn from donated material, and the girls were given the opportunity to choose the fabric and trim. Adults volunteered and worked with each girl.

Dresses were also made by the HEA members in their homes, and all of them will be sent to the organization that will distribute them to the grateful girls in Africa.