About The Founder, Rachel Cinader

Rachel Eggum Cinader Says:

 People are always giving me ideas to make a difference in the lives of women. Audrey approached me on one of our trips to Uganda and said, “I have this pattern. I think you could teach the women how to make pillowcase dresses.”

 I tucked it away with my other ideas and forgot about it. Nearly a year later, when my sister Joan and I were going to Uganda I wondered, “What project can we do with the women in the tailoring program?”  I remembered that pattern so we collected pillowcases and taught the women at Smile Africa to make dresses!  It was sew much fun! The next month, Pastor Ruth, the administrator of the program, sent me pictures of the Karamojong girls –the most despised group in all of Uganda—and they were all wearing dresses.  

 People from around the USA began to write and ask, “Can we make dresses?”  We sent 50 dresses to Honduras with my friend Emily and when those pictures came back of the girls wearing their colorful dresses and beaming with pride, we were all hooked!

 As we grew we stopped using pillowcases and now use beautiful, sturdy cotton fabric!

 Dedicated volunteers throughout the United States and around the world gather to sew and distribute dresses to girls in need around the world because we believe that every girl deserves at least one dress. . . 

 Visit the Ambassador and international Partner pages to see just a few of those committed to the cause.  You can contact the person closest to you and they will help you get started.

 Since our start in October of 2009, the recorded number of dresses delivered is over one million to 81 countries!  We now have Ambassadors all over the world.

 Where do we go from here?  We are going to continue dressing girls—we are constantly working together on putting out God’s best dress, as this will be the only gift most of these girls will ever receive.  We are adding sex trafficking awareness to our program.

 We are beginning to hold Dress a Girl Camps and Kid’s Days around the globe—teaching girls to give back.  (Our camps are also open to boys who want to learn to sew and to give back)

 Together we strive toward the vision of “every girl deserves at least one dress.”