Creative Nudge – Sewing Kits for Africa

As friends and family have checked in to let us know they are ok, albeit without power after the passage of Irene, I am feeling relieved that the hurricane was not as destructive as forecast. We know of 2 suppliers whose warehouses full of fabric were destroyed, and we are just happy that nobody was hurt there. Next month they will have new container shipments full of fabric.

Later this week we'll be posting a 3rd video from the Birmingham show, this time featuring the Tentmakers of Cairo. I am sharing a closeup of one of these incredibly complex applique quilts – which take months to make just one quilt. As I stood looking at this exhibition, I got a little teary-eyed, thinking about the Arab Spring and Egypt's uprising. Through it all, the quiltmakers in Cairo just kept stitching.

I'd like to try to help bring this exhibit from Cairo to the US, and I'll be looking for sponsors and help with customs paperwork, so if any of you are interested in contributing funds or expertise to this project please let us know. ( Watch for the video here in the next few days!)

We're going to stay on the topic of Africa for a moment, and move from Egypt to Kenya and Somalia. Our friend Tom is an administrator for a refugee camp on the border of Kenya, working with refugees from the famine in Somalia. As I mentioned last week, Tom (whom we originally met through Doctors Without Borders) is in Boulder for another week, and has offered to hand carry 20-25 lbs of sewing kits and sewing supplies to these Somalian refugees who must endure the crushing boredom in the camp for months, or even years.

I've had many requests from customers and friends who want to contribute to this care package of sewing supplies. If you are local, you can drop off any donations (such as scissors, needles and thread) to the eQuilter office by Weds Sept 7 at 5 pm latest. Tom will pick up the package Sept 8 before flying back to Kenya.

For those of you who are out of state, and have expressed a desire to donate to this package, we have a limited-time option on our checkout Charity Options page, to choose "Sewing Supplies for Africa" and we will add another kit of scissors, needle packet and thread spool, to Tom's hand-carried package. Tom says there is plenty of fabric there, but no sewing supplies. Eventually we will get some photos from Tom from the distribution of the supplies.

We are working with Mission of Love to develop an ongoing program to donate sewing supplies to communities such as Pine Ridge, Guatemala and Honduras. We'll keep you posted on how you can participate, if you are interested.

We'll be sending a portion of our charity funds for hurricane relief this month, as things settle and we see what communities have been hardest hit.