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At the end of May, Wendy and I were invited to Buccleuch Primary School to accept more than 80 blankets that the children had knitted as part of their English curriculum.  The timing was perfect – just ahead of mid-winter and the blankets were distributed via 67 blankets for Nelson Mandela within a few weeks of being collected.

The children at Buccleuch Primary School knitting blankets for those less fortunate than themselves.

The children were very excited to show off their beautiful creations and posed with their blankets for us.  We explained to them how KAS works and they seemed interested and happy that their blankets would bless and benefit children of their own age, living in very different circumstances.

Some of the many blankets we collected.

It is wonderful to see a renewed interest in knitting and crocheting especially amongst the youth and we have been taken aback by the particular interest in the craft by the boys.  This little boy crocheted this beautiful blanket himself and was so proud of what he had achieved.

Some of the children had also made jerseys and we were so amazed and pleasantly surprised with their skills, considering that none of these children are over the age of 13 years.

You may wonder, as we did, how knitting forms part of the English syllabus, but it is actually more obvious than what you first think.  The teachers encourage the children to practice their reading and general comprehension skills by reading and understanding the patterns – as easy as that!  What an amazing way to teach children basic skills and, in so doing, show them how important it is to contribute to their contemporaries living with so much less !

Some of the children even made a blanket displaying the schools emblem – a castle!

The children helped carry and pack the many blankets into Wendy’s car – we needed the KASvan to collect a donation of items from a business in Midrand, which we visited straight after our visit to Buccleuch. 

The children helping to pack blankets into Wendy’s car.

Update on the postal strike

There is still no end in sight with regards to the postal strike.  Some of the mail is trickling in and this week we received five small parcels which I collected from the Post Office but, sadly, we had to cancel our volunteer day again on Thursday. 

Estelle with the five parcels we received.

I am pleased to report that our blankets stocks are piling up again and next week we will be driving to Soweto in order to collect more than 100 blankets which have been sewn together by the gogo groups in Soweto and Dobsonville.

Our blanket wall – aren’t they just gorgeous?