Local Mixes Passion for Sewing with Humanitarian Effort One Tush at a Time

On any given day there are between 800 and 1,000 diapers drying on clotheslines outside one of four orphanages in Haiti. In assorted colors of cotton, the tiny hourglass shaped bottom coverings blow and dry throughout the night. The next day they are folded and reused.

The story of how they got there, blowing in the warm, tropical, Haitian wind is one of selflessness and inspiration that starts close to home. The diapers are handmade and donated by Ramona Ross of Culbertson. With a love for sewing and a desire to be active with humanitarian efforts, becoming involved in a global project that combined the two was a perfect fit.

To date, she has made 155 dozen, resulting in 1,860 diapers.

Her efforts date back to March of 2011, when it was brought to her attention by Ruth Clark, a member of the Big Sky Church of Froid, that there was a need for volunteers to sew diapers for use in faraway Haitian orphanages. Clark had received a pamphlet of information from a Brethren church member from Council Bluff, Iowa. Four orphanages housing roughly 100 infants, using typically between eight to 10 diapers a day for each child badly needed large amounts of cloth diapers that were thin enough to dry but thick enough to be absorbent.

“I read that article and I knew I loved to sew and be able to give back something to the community even if Haiti isn’t local. That is what our community is about. I knew this was a project I could do so I did it,” Ross said.

She uses cotton knit fabric such as gently used T-shirts for the diapers because they will be hand washed each day and need to be able to dry overnight.

She uses light colored fabrics for the inside of the diapers and the darker, patterned portions for the outside. Two layers of the T-shirt fabric are cut into an hourglass shape. Next, she sews three layers of material that are called soaker pads down the middle of the diaper and adds elastic to the legs. Velcro closures complete the diaper with no pins needed to keep it up.

The diapers previously used in Haiti were triangular pieces of cloth gathered between the baby’s legs and tied in a knot at the belly. This style of diapering wasn’t working well because there was excessive leakage and the walking children would lose the diaper as it slid down to the floor.

During the last 12 months Ross has developed a system that allows her to work alone. By using an assembly-line technique she is able to complete diapers faster than when doing each one separately. When she first attempted the assembly line method she tried to make 30 diapers at a time and found it to be too overwhelming. Now, she has a system that allows her to complete 18 diapers more quickly while sewing each diaper in about a half-an-hour.

“It’s amazing how many people bring me new stuff. For the material that isn’t new, the stains don’t matter and I can work around the holes. If the patterns have something offensive written on them I use those parts for the soaker pads,” she said.

In the past Ross has received many donations from area residents who have given T-shirts, spools of elastic and Velcro. She was given a bag of over 300 T-shirts from a resident in St. Marie and the Tumbleweeds 4-H Club donated $25 for the cost of thread. The Big Sky Church of Froid donated $200 toward the project as well.

Each month Ross spends about $20 dollars of her own money purchasing whatever she runs out of.

She figured out it takes roughly 300 T-shirts to make 450 diapers.

This year she set up a booth at the Roosevelt County Fair and talked with community members about her project with the hopes of getting some T-shirt donations along the way. “I didn’t get too many because people didn’t know I was going to be there and of course they didn’t just happen to carry a bunch of T-shirts along with them,” she said.

Ross doesn’t ship the diapers overseas. Instead, she takes them to the Church of the Brethren in Council Bluff, Iowa when she picks up her grandkids. From there they end up at the Sacred Heart Haiti Mission located in Rochester, Minnesota, where they are then shipped overseas.

Last March, Ross used the last of her T-shirt donations and has very temporarily been on hiatus. With the cooler months approaching she hopes to replenish her stockpile of T-shirts so she can continue with her project.

Together with her late husband Jim, she has two grown daughters, Dawn Conat of Froid and Kim Rhodes of Osawatomie, Kansas.

To donate T-shirts, other materials or to make a donation, contact Ross at 406-787-5568.