3 days ago
Knitting circles helping to warm up cold children
In 2000, Taupo knitter Liz Clarke started Operation Cover Up in response to news reports of children in an Eastern European orphanage suffering in wintertime because of poor quality bedding and the lack of suitable cold weather clothes.
She used local media to ask knitters to knit blankets, hoping to donate one blanket per child living in that Moldavian orphanage.
The following year, Kaiapoi resident Maureen Braun took up the challenge and called on her friends and associates in the knitting circles she was involved with, to do what they could to help Liz and Operation Cover Up.
Now 25 years later Maureen says it has been a wonderful experience being involved with this nation-wide project.
''In the quarter of a century Operation Cover Up has been in existence, they have shipped over 165,000 blankets and half a million knitted garments to the poor and needy in Eastern Europe. That's a wonderful undertaking and one I am proud to have been part of,'' she says.
Maureen started sending Operation Cover Up four wool bales full of knitted blankets and clothes from North Canterbury, which joined the others from throughout the country shipped from New Zealand to Europe under the banner of Mission Without Borders, an international Christian organisation delivering humanitarian aid to marginalised communities in Eastern Europe.
Now Maureen says around 36 bales of knitted products are shipped annually from the upper South Island to join the bales supplied by the rest of the country.
She says the focus has shifted to helping those in war torn Ukraine, but the knitters still support poor families in five other eastern European countries, as most of the children's homes / orphanages have closed.
Today, over 90 co-ordinators living all over the country work with small groups of knitters in towns and cities producing blankets, hats, clothes and toys for children in need.
Maureen says it is amazing the response she has received from knitting groups here.
''They can be as small as a couple of friends to big community groups - all are keen to help. It just seemed to happen organically through word of mouth and media articles.''
She and fellow member, Anne Murchison, say they have met many wonderful people over the years and are now working towards their June collection date, when they start bailing up all the knitted products in wool bales to be shipped to Europe in July.
Anne has been involved for three years and says she has been encouraged by the generosity of people in the North Canterbury communities.
''One of the knitting groups started is at the Kaiapoi Library on Friday afternoons, from 1pm to 3pm. We would welcome anyone interested in coming along. It's a very social group and we have a lot of fun as we knit,' she says.
Another is a group of only 20 knitters from the Kaiapoi Cooperating Parish, who have ''lovingly crafted 93 blankets and more than 150 jerseys'', plus dozens of other knitted articles in the past year.
''Being part of a group of knitters is great for social interaction, it gets people out of their houses and improves mental health,'' says Anne.
For more information about Operation Cover Up contact Maureen on 021 036 5420.
