Tag Archives: Charity

Where have I been…? Tweeting! But These Women Matter. Read On…

I know, I’ve been MIA. Well, blogging is blogging, and I’ve been Tweeting my little brains out. But I came across this incredibly moving article, and I had to share it.

The scarf is a physical reminder of all those missing and dead in Peru's conflict.

Many, many women in Peru have a place in their hearts that feeds on blackness and silence. It is a bleak landscape of remembering, the result of husbands and sons and nephews and fathers “disappeared” by the Shining Path rebels and state forces in the 1980s and ’90s. Now, today, these women are knitting a Scarf of Hope, a remembrance of the thousands gone from their lives. I am humbled and saddened… and hopeful that the knitters will triumph.

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A Scarf of Hope and Remembrance, by Dan CollynsBBC News, Ayacucho, Peru

There is something warmly familiar and comforting about the quiet chatter of women and the clickety-clack of knitting needles. Standing or sitting huddled together in small groups, the knitters dressed in traditional Andean hats, big “pollera” skirts and draped with a “manta” or shawl, form a multi-coloured feast for the eyes. But they have more in common than crochet. These women are some of thousands in Peru who lost husbands, brothers and sons in the country’s bitter internal conflict between the Mao-inspired rebels of the Shining Path rebels and state forces in the 1980s and 90s.

Read the whole story here.

What Does It Take to Change the World…

A treasured handknit sweater

A treasured handknit sweater

I sometimes wonder what it takes to change the world. In particular, how do people around the world know that we, here in the U.S., are just like them? Between a good friend of mine, an Argentinean, there are no barriers. Her life, her sensibility is much the same as mine.

But what about the women whose country doesn’t allow them to vote? Or the ones who are shrouded from head to toe? Or those who endure female castration? How to tell them that life can be different? That others care? That under the burkha, we are the same?

That’s just what Afghans for Afghan does. Bodies are warmed, but so are minds and souls and hearts.  Continue reading

Keep the Fleece…

Keep the FleeceI’m a big fan of Linda Cortright and her Wild Fibers magazine. But Linda wears many more hats than “mag publisher.” One of those hats – most likely a top hat – is helming the Keep the Fleece project. Continue reading

Help AIDS Orphans with Warmth and Love…

What’s an AIDS orphan? A child whose lost a mother and/or father to AIDS. These children are alone, abandoned, unloved, and it’s estimated that there are 11.6 million of them in Africa. So why don’t you:

Continue reading