新プロジェクトの発表ですープロジェクト・フィリピン！
Announcing our new project - Project Philippines!
On November 8, 2013, the Philippines experienced the deadliest typhoon on record, Typhoon Haiyan (also known as Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines). The destructive images and reports hit close to home. As 2011 tsunami survivors, it was in our hearts to somehow help in the recovery effort.
An opportunity arose for one of our members to go to Leyte, Philippines to document the reconstruction for a place called “The Centre of Change”. With this opportunity, we thought as Yarn Alive, we could send some supplies and let them know that we are thinking of them.
The Centre of Change was established under the leadership of Margaret Pashley. This community is a place where orphans and children at risk are housed, clothed, educated and cared for. Each child lives in a house with a House Parent who cares for them in a home environment.
On November 8, the children and neighbors ran to a World War II bunker on their premise for shelter. Over 200 people gathered together as they faced the typhoon. Thankfully they were all safe, however fourteen of the fifteen houses were destroyed.
Although the Philippines by large is a warm climate, the frequent typhoons that hit make temperatures drop dramatically. Last month it even got as cold as 15C (59F). Margaret shared that the children were very cold and so they tried to search for blankets and sweaters. She also mentioned that the Centre of Change used to have enough bedding for all the children, but many things disappeared or blew away during the storm.
The ladies of Yarn Alive cannot help rebuild the houses with their own hands but they can certainly use their hands to make blankets to bring warmth and a ray of sunshine into each of those rooms.
Our goal for the end of March is to make 76 light blankets. These blankets will be created in a size that can be placed at the end of each of the children and youth’s beds and also be used as a shawl or lap blanket for studying during the cooler months. There are 42 boys and 34 girls aged between 6-24 years old.
So this week every person placed their hand in a bowl (well, a beanie...), withdrew a piece of paper of which sex and age they will be knitting for and received their bags of yarn. With excitement, the ladies immediately started to write down the measurements and work out which pattern to use.
If you would like to be donate towards this project, monetary donations can be made via our website and blog. Alternatively, please visit the Facebook page for Centre of Change for more information on how to contribute monetary donations towards the reconstruction of the buildings.