Update - May 2008

The total of items hand-knitted and shipped abroad now totals 628,000.

The latest shipments included:-

• 4,000 to the shattered nation of Zimbabwe through the Melbourne-based Women for Women in Africa organisation
  
  
• 2,500 to a slum area of Nairobi, Kenya, through the same organisation.
  
  
• 3,000 to Peru... and
  
  
• 2,000 to eastern Europe.
  

Great work everyone!

Update - April 2008

Our latest news is that our new total of hand-knitted woollens made and distributed abroad has now gone past 616,500

The latest shipments included 3,000 items to the Kirsty Sword Foundation in Dili, East Timor; 1,000 items to Uganda and 500 items to the Vanuatu islands with others going to Peru and elsewhere.

A message just in from Botswana says they've just received their consignment...sent 7 months ago!

There were also big smiles in the mail from Cambodia where an Australian couple,Dawn Cornish and Dr Andrew Clift have just set up a new non-profit charity...."The Children's Sanctuary" to care for orphaned and abandoned children. It's run by Australian doctors and nurses. The website is http://thechildrenssanctuary.com

They sent us these photos..and the following message:

"We are immensely grateful for all the effort spent in their creation and transport of these gorgeous jumpers.

Jumpers and beanies are very expensive here and most children have never owned such a beautiful piece of clothing. The dolls produced much excitement and all were claimed in a matter of minutes!

Thank you again for your kindness and generosity.

Sending Our Warmest Wishes to You All from Cambodia,

The Children's Sanctuary, Siem Reap, Cambodia xxx

Update - April 2008

Congratulations......

The total of items made and shipped now totals a whopping
610,000 !!!!!

The latest shipment of 60,000 jumpers plus hundreds of blankets, and dolls....which actually emptied our storage warehouse ...........was sent off to a major hospital in......NEPAL !!!

A huge thank you to all participants, especially to those who provided vital transportation and packing assistance free of charge ...and where would we be without the generous people who are providing our storage facilities at Springvale? Thank you so much!

Update - March/April 2008

Great news!

The number of knitted items....jumpers, beanies, dolls and blankets made and shipped has now zoomed past the 550,000 mark...Well done!!!

The latest recipients again reflect the huge range of the outreach...on Zimbabwe, South Africa, Peru, Eastern Europe and our own Australian outback communities!

April 2008 Newsletter :

• Click here for Word Document format or,
• Click here for PDF format

Just in from Uganda...from International Support Aid...these photos of their latest distribution for us to various parts of Uganda...women's maternity hospitals..as well as needy mothers' groups within the Jinja district.The consignment included the colourful blankets (fast becoming a very popular item), jumpers...and, yes, some very fancy bootees!

Update - March 2008

The latest shipments:-

• 20,000 garments and dolls to Zimbabwe..... and
• 500 items to South Africa...

Giving us a new total of made & shipped items to 520,500 !!!

Many hundreds of women throughout Australia have been touched by the plight of the needy infants in Africa and have set about making a contribution, often inviting family and friends to join in.

Dorothy Llewellen of Port Macquarie (New South Wales)...in the white blouse...and her friend Coral Kedzlie...are two such helpers. Here they were photographed with some samples of their work in Dorothy's home. A wonderful effort indeed. Well done...and thank you!

Update - January / February 2008

Photos from Burundi

Mission World Aid staff in the African nation of Burundi have just sent us the following photos. The knitted woollens, especially the jumpers, were distributed to various locations including the Highlands area of the country and also an orphanage at Gatumba

.......And just in from East Timor!

The lives of many thousands in East Timor have been seriously dislocated through civil turmoil....and many don't have the luxury of any personal possessions...

Hence the shy smiles when they received their gifts of knitted comfort dolls from Australia!

Living in tented camps os otself a further challenge.

Amazingly...the number of woollens (long sleeved vests...or jumpers...beanies...bootees..blankets...& the ever popular comfort dolls has now reached the  spectacular   

HALF A MILLION mark!...500,000...a fantastic achievement.

Take a bow everyone, especially Ken, Lyn & Elsie...but heed their Newsletter requests (Word Doc format) / (PDF format)

Over the Christmas New Year period, the storage warehouse all but overflowed!

In a massive exercise in late January, some 50,000 items were handled,sorted, packed and shipped out.

The overwhelming bulk of these items were sent off to the SUDAN and KENYA...both countries that are still locked into an ongoing tide of bloody violence with soaring humanitarian needs.Mission World AID took charge of this shipment.

A smaller consignment of some 1,200 large sized jumpers, many beanies, around 150 comfort dolls and our top priority item now...KNITTED BLANKETS....are headed for the Zomba Hospital in MALAWI.

KNITTED BLANKETS ARE NOW OUR KEY NEED.......ABOVE ALL ELSE.

WE ASK ALL OUR KNITTERS...AUSTRALIA WIDE...TO FOCUS ON KNITTING BLANKETS ONLY PLEASE.

WE TAKE THIS OPPORTUNIYU TO WISH EVERYONE IN THIS WORK A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

Update - mid November, 2007

The number of knitted woollens made...and shipped overseas...has now zoomed up to 398,000

The latest shipments have included:-

• 16,000 from our NSW knitters...have been shipped to Fiji, Argentina and Eastern Europe
• 13,000 from Victorian knitters have gone to Tibet and Vietnam..along with
• 4,500 to Fiji

A quantity of the ever popular knitted dolls are also on their way to a much needed area...Burma.

Also, remember the big gift of cotton we received? That's off to a good home too....a sewing machine training centre in UGANDA where women are taught to sew for their children or their grand-children.

Newsflash: Just in from Uganda.

The International Support Aid organisation, one of the number we work with, has just send us photos of a container delivery. As you can see, these are both huge..and costly....but look at the mountain of material that they deliver to the needy...and many of Uganda's needy are virtually destitute!

www.internationalsupportaid.org

Update - November 2007

We've reached a new high...........................364,500

The latest shipments included:-

• 10,000 jumpers to UGANDA..and
• 3,000 jumpers to East Timor via the Salesians

Both shipments also carried loads of those popular woollen dolls..and the new extra...the knitted blankets, which are also much sought after! 40 of these blankets were sent to Uganda alone as well as the cold hills area of East Timor where they'll be especially appreciated.

1,000 jumpers..and 600 dolls have also been shipped to Cambodia...and a further 100 dolls are on their way to other South African orphanages.

Also..just in from South Africa, the good news that the parcels sent to The Hole in the Wall Orphanage in Johannesburg have arrived and have been very joyfully received.This is a unique orphanage... Mothers are offered the opportunity to pop their new-born infants into what looks like a snug bin in the wall....much like our Op shops in Australia...rather than abandoning them to die on the street. There have been some 17 such "arrivals" there in the past 3 months!

You knitters from Muswellbrook, Tea Gardens, Karuah, and North Arm Cove in New South Wales cxan all take a bow. 3,000 of your jumpers have now reached South Africa.

The orphanage managers send their sincere thanks to all and "Blessings beyond measure"
Maybe you'd like to visit them on the website. It's the Door of Hope Children's mission www.holeinthewall.org.za

Update - October 2007

Hello Australia...and our overseas supporters too!

At last count, the total number of your hand-knitted woollen garments made and shipped abroad had zoomed past the third of ONE MILLION mark.......to 350,500. That's truly renmarkable! Take a bow...all concerned - that's you organisers, knitters, packers and sorters and the host of volunteers, drivers and assorted helpers that make up this huge tapestry that's warming so many in different parts of the world.

In the latest shipments:

• 11,500 jumpers are on their way to Easten Europe, and that's especially good because that part of the world will soon be entering the chill of winter.
• 6,000 jumpers are headed in the other direction....to Zambia.

And of course, uncounted but a very important part of every consignment, the very highly prized woollen dolls that also go for the ride.

One of those wonderful dolls has fimished up in the arms of Jessica's youngest daughter, Rishannah, at the Kiwirrkurra clinic..a remote aboriginal community in the Gibson Desert of central Australia...some 700 kilometres away from the nearest town...Alice Springs. It's been said that even as the late 1980's many in this community had never set eyes on a white person! As well as the very-welcomed dolls, many of the knitted jumpers have found their way here and they'll all be distributed before the first chill of autumn makes itself felt.

Jessica's obvious delight speaks volumes!

A special thank you to a generous Sydney donor.... for her gift of almost 270 kilograms of variously coloured cotton yarn, worth almost $4,000. We've yet to think how best to use this gift. Maybe you'd have some ideas to offer?

SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR ALL QUEENSLAND AND VICTORIAN KNITTERS

Update: September 2007

The latest tally has now zoomed to 333,000 .......and that's just the jumpers. The dolls, beanies and booties are numbered in the thousands too...and then there's the new item...the blankets.

The 33,000 jumpers shipped in September have gone or are in the process of making their way to Africa....Uganda, Zambia and Kenya.

Through Mission World AID in South Australia alone, in terms of weight, they've handled some 3 tonnes of the donated garments!

A package of 600 dolls is en route to South Africa, as is a Christmas parcel to orphans there

The number of knitted woollen jumpers made and shipped abroad has now topped 300,000.

The most recent shipments of jumpers (to say nothing about all the beanies and dolls as well) have included:-

• 25,000 to Ethiopia for the Somali community there and 500 to the community in Melbourne)
• 12,000 to Uganda
• 1,300 to Alice Springs and Kalgoorlie for the indigenous children there
• 500 to orphans in South Africa...as part of an Australian school project (jumpers, dolls & beanies)
• 100 to 'quake-ravaged Peru

The shipments to Ethiopia and Uganda also included something new....knitted blankets!

********There are some heartwarming stories too behind the scenes.....

For example, take the consignment of 25,000 jumpers, dolls, etc that went off to a place in ETHIOPIA called RAASO........via a Melbourne-based volunteer organisation known as the RAASO Relief, Rehabilitation Organisation Inc.

It was founded by a Somali Community Leader in West Heidelberg ( a Melbourne suburb)...Mr Abdalla Ahmed, who settled in Melbourne over 25 years ago.. When he visited the Somali region of Ethiopia in 2005 he was deeply affected by its poverty and sickness and then set himself the Herculean task of building them a hospital! The area which is occupied by over 300,000 displaced people has no infrastructure, electricity, clean water, education or hrealth facilities...and there are no aid agencies in the area. Mr Ahmed's email address is abdalla.ahmed@bchs.org.au

****And then there was the news that came out of inland Australia..from Kalgoorlie.There was great excitement as 4 boxloads of jumpers arrived and were promptly distributed "far and wide throughout our desert communities" as Brian Lamont, the Deputy Manager of the Kalgoorlie Indigenous Coordination Centre wrote.The furthest of these communities is an astounding 2,400 km from Kalgoorlie...mostly on a dirt road...at Kiwirrkurra. Brian went on to write: " You can rest easy, knowing that your joyful colours (jumpers) will soon be running around the bright red sand deserts of Western Australia." What a great message!

*****And, still on Kalgoorlie, thank you Sue Morley, the International Director of the Kalgoorlie Rotary Club....Sue's advised that her Club has adopted the knitting project as one it''ll be supporting this year. Bravo!

*** Just in !

From the Chigodi Women's Centre, in Blantyre, Malawi....photos of lovingly
received jumpers from Australia's wonderful knitters.Krissy and Grace were
involved in the distribution there.