TIME TO SEND THOSE PACKAGES
Our volunteers in The Barn are receiving packages from the Post Office once again.
You can start sending your squares and other goodies...finally.
Please remember to your the KAS Packing Slip/Mailing Label.
This month Vivienne, Themba, Athele and Estelle have all made distributions of KAS Blankets. You can see more photos here.
The cake in The Blanket Room has been growing, eaten by the blanket shelves and grown again.
Please visit this discussion to feast your eyes on some really amazing blankets.
DID YOU KNOW?
The faces of the small children made refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine were haunting. Huge eyes shining out beyond the masks in bewilderment and fear.
Unicef estimates that more than 2.5 million children have been forced to flee.
The focus of the media may have dwindled on their terrible situation, but their reality remains dire.
They are in camps, sometimes without their parents as they return to Ukraine to take up arms.
The lines to cross the border into Poland are still long, with women and their children sleeping outside in the wind and freezing rain.
But, for many when they cross the border there are welcoming faces of some wonderful people who have volunteered to be there, handing out chocolate, providing healthcare and general support.
In seeking to find a way to support these amazing people and particularly the children they are assisting, we wrote to anyone we could find a name and or contact number for who was helping at the border.
Wendy Warrington, a midwife and grandmother from Bury in the UK made the decision to go the Polish Ukranian border to see if she could help expectant and post-natal mothers as they crossed over.
Moved by this video which showcased her work, we contacted the Bury Polish Club who had featured it and asked them to pass on our message to Wendy asking how we could help.
https://www.facebook.com/100000182907488/videos/pcb.489819526180888/934541313900195
Wonderfully, Wendy wrote back weeks later and said she could put us in touch with a charity set up by Christie Nelson looking after refugee children.
Christie is a recreational therapist volunteer. Her work is showcased in this article. https://connect.uclahealth.org/2022/04/07/a-welcoming-face-on-the-ukraine-border/
Not long after Christie wrote to say the children would love toys, and needed blankets, jumpers and hats. She has passed on these details of a warehouse that can receive the goods and from which she can distribute them to the children.
This is your opportunity to provide love and warmth to these displaced children.
It is impossible to imagine what they are going through, but your act of kindness beyond warming them, can give them a sense that they are not alone, the world cares and there is hope.
Every stitch is a stitch for humanity, for solidarity and for compassion.
You can send your items here:
Medyka 171
C/O Jonathan Lubeky (Christie Nelson)
Medyka 37 - 732
Poland
Once again we are receiving mail in The Barn, and the volunteers are so excited. After a month of tiding up the place, they are happy to have the tables filled with new squares, and more blankets to photograph.
Read all of Estelle's reports in this discussion.
We say Welcome to the newest members on the Forum. They live in the UK, New Zealand and the USA.
Myra Gardner
Christine Wray
Jessica
Our May Theme is Under the African Sky, and we have had many delightful posts about this marvelous continent. Visit this discussion to see some beautiful squares, blankets and other goodies.
The Color Of The Month is YELLOW.
The theme for June is Night and Day.
Think color opposites...light/dark, bright neons/subtle tones. Use the color wheel...blue/orange, yellow/purple or red/green.
Patricia Underwood will be hosting
and the Color Of The Month is TURQUOISE.
The MARCH Squares List is available.
Monthly totals:
During March we recorded 84 parcels containing 5.839 squares, equal to 204 blankets.
Many other items were received, such as hats, hand-warmers, go-overs, cuddly toys and other goodies.
Please find below the squares list as an attachment: 2022 MARCH SQUARES LIST.pdf and click on it to open it:
IMPORTANT NOTE:
THERE WILL BE NO APRIL SQUARES LIST DUE TO THE PROBLEMS AT THE POST OFFICE.
Some parcels were received in April, these will be recorded in the May Squares List.
Now that the mail is up and running again, please be sure to secure all your parcels well with tape and use the KAS Packing Slip/Mailing Label every time.
Replies
Amy, thank you for this fab edition! It's a great read and a super way to catch up with everything while I'm home for a few days ... xo
I had 5 , 56inch by 8 inch strips for a blanket Sandra has sewn them together and with a cot blanket I today posted it to the Poland address as there are lots of you knitting for the Orphans and there will be lots coming through in the post.
I am delighted to hear that the floodgates can now open again, and the warmth and love can begin flowing to these children once more. I am also grateful to hear of this opportunity to send items to the Ukraine for the refugee children. I am not sure I have the energy to make them jumpers/sweaters, however if I purchase some and remove all tags, nobody would know they are new. Would this work? I am presuming we would send completed blankets only to Ukraine as no one there has time or materials to assemble them. This is a great way to make a concrete difference. I hope many people feel inspired to help the Ukrainian children in every way they can.
By the way that's a lovely verse about knitting/crocheting. It can indeed take us out of the hustle of life, it's pressures and help us settle.