CHURCHGOING knitters in Shifnal couldn’t wait to get their knitting needles clicking when they heard of a scheme to supply baby clothes for indigent mothers in a South African township.
Since the beginning of the year a group of ladies from ‘Churches Together in Shifnal District’ have knitted blankets and hats for ‘Stork Support’, which provides starter packs to mothers with new born infants at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital, Mdantsane.
Each pack consists of a bag containing a hat, bib, vest, jersey, baby grow, bootees, napkin, blanket, baby products, a cake of soap, a fluffy toy/knitted teddy, a face cloth and a gospel tract.
About 1,000 infants are born at the hospital every month, and with the help of a body of volunteers, 10,000 kits have been supplied to moms since the project began in 2004.
‘We have sent two consignments out to South Africa so far,’ said John Hume, chairman of ‘Churches Together in Shifnal’, ‘but due to the high cost of postage we are trying to wean our ladies off knitting blankets and get them knitting hats and booties instead. That way we can send more for the money.’
‘Stork Support’ is run by the Revd Lorraine Rusch, priest-in-charge of a small church on the West Bank, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2007. The hospital is in the township of Mdantsane, a suburb of the greater East London, and is the second largest township in South Africa.
After receiving the second consignment of knitted items, Lorraine wrote to express the gratitude of the mothers.
‘I have just come back from delivering the articles and the mothers were so excited and grateful,’ she wrote. ‘It is really starting to get cold here now, and I know that those who have received a kit are truly thrilled and even more so when I explain to them that their parcel is a gift from people overseas.
‘For them this is beyond anything they can imagine because many of them live and die in the area in which they were born. Never able to travel far because of cost.’
For more information about ‘Stork Support’ contact John Hume, 01952 684085.