Knit, Crochet and Sew for charity

Loving Hands works alongside several major charites with projects and challenges ongoing all the time. The charities we are working with at the moment include:-

Linda McDonald Foundation:- Here are some comments from Linda McDonald herself (taken from her own website) that better explains what she is doing here....
'How it all began
Our connection with the orphanages started 4 years ago when we visited Bulgaria for totally selfish reasons (to buy a house). During our visit, a Bulgarian friend introduced us to the Orphans (Elhovo) and their plight.
So, compelled to do something, on our subsequent trips we built up an enviable set of muscles carrying suitcases across containing a few things for the children. In January 2007, having made approximately 12 visits and just been slapped with a rather hefty excess baggage charges, some bright spark had a Eureka moment (I’m not sure if it was Richard or myself – but we’ll blame Richard anyway).
The bright idea? – Buy a van, fill it with items for the children and drive it across to Bulgaria. So, we decided to contact some business associates and a few family friends to ask them for some basic necessities like washing powder, toothpaste nappies etc and a small donation of £5 towards the transportation costs. We hoped that by doing this and placing a small appeal on local radio, we would be able to fill the van in time for summer – weren’t we in for a shock! Word soon got out and very soon we were inundated, unable to find a tardis, we send a container instead of the van!

And so, from a suitcase to a container-
The “Basic Necessities Appeal” was born!
In every single large town in Bulgaria there is an Orphanage coping with between 50 and 120 children at any given time. These children range in age from a few days old to the age of 18. Outside help is very limited, and providing even sufficient food or head is an burdensome and almost impossible task. In the main, the staffs try the best that they can with the limited resources available to them. Over the last few years we have been trying to assist their efforts. In particular, we have been supporting 2 orphanages in Bulgaria – 1 in the city of Yambol and the other in the town of Elhovo, providing what we call “the basic necessities”.
In the summer of 2007, we were able to send out a 45ft container filled with donations of clothes and basic necessities. Upon arrival in Bulgaria, this was divided out between the two orphanages.'

We will aim to help out Linda in what she is doing by making clothes, blankets and toys for these children. This way all of our mediums can be involved in helping what is indeed a fantastic cause (and becuase Linda personally goes over with each delivery we know that all the aid is getting to exactly where it is needed which is something that we here at Loving Hands feel is very important to us.

Blythswood Care - This is a wonderful organisation based in Scotland. They have asked us particularly to help out with donations of lap rugs, hats, scarves, gloves and warm clothing to help the elderly in the Eastern European countries where they send aid. We also give them second hand clothing, toys and bric a brac that is handed in to head office by local wellwishers.

Boobs for Breastfeeding! -

This is our most famous charity project (and also the most photographed!). We were asked to make some of these woolly mammaries as a favour by Tommee Tippee in exchange for donations of cloth nappies and wraps for Baby Pack. We now make them all the time as Tommee Tippee take these knitted boobies out to baby shows and let health professionals have them for their breastfeeding classes in exchange for donations for Breast Cancer Charity. We also make some for ladies who have had mastectomies and are uncomfortable with the prosthetics that are given to them after operations. The pattern for these is available from Lou at charityknitters@yahoo.co.uk.

British and International Sailors Society - Since 1818 this group has carried out a mission covering ports in many countries all over the world. They distribute over 15,000 hats to seafaring men each year while making sure they are well and safe. This year we have joined in to help them make this total even more in 2008. (Some foreign fishermen end up in our ports with no warm clothing at all having come from warmer countries, some of these men are also abandoned in ports by unscrupulous captains and turn to the Sailors Society for aid).

Feed The Children - We make jumpers, cardigans and blankets for Feed The Children to send out to their projects all over the world. They have recently sent us a letter appealing for v neck school jumpers (royal blue, navy blue, maroon, bottle green, pink and yellow are the colours and they need sizes from 22" to 34" with an extra couple of inches added to the body and sleeve lengths) this will allow youngsters in countries like Kenya to attend school and get a decent education. They also need the same sizes in other jumpers and cardigans and blankets as it can get very cold even in the hottest countries when night falls.

Save The Children - We were led into this one by Paul O Gradys's appeal for knitted hats for newborns who were feeling the serious effects of cold nights. It has been added to our Summer Challenges for this year and the members have almost done half of this part of the challenge in less than three weeks!

We also assist many maternity hospitals with donations of premature baby clothes, blankets and small toys for the SCBU's, we also provide baby cardigans, hats etc to Labour Wards and Post Natal Wards as well. Recently we have added several stitchers to our skill base. These lovely ladies are producing burial gowns and angel pockets for tiny souls who do not survive. (Most of these are made from donated wedding dresses - a wonderful way to recycle and 'pay it forward').

Finally we make blankets for animal shelters and collect in towels, duvets, cot bumpers and old bedding to take over to help our furry friends :0)

So you see we are working with many wonderful charities all of them very worthwhile.

If you would like to join us then please email your details to Lou at charityknitters@yahoo.co.uk .