Crocheting their way to an income

Published Sep 8, 2015

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Johannesburg - Monkeys, teddy bears, frogs and dolls sit in the middle of the table.

Around them, women’s hands rhythmically loop crochet hooks in and out of brightly coloured wool. The creators of these beautiful toys are from the Little Pine Tree toy workshop.

The workshop’s founder, Goeun Bae, teaches unemployed women from all backgrounds how to do amigurumi, the Japanese art of crocheting or knitting stuffed animals.

Her aim is to teach the women a practical skill and allow them to generate an income.

Bae started the project four months ago after moving to South Africa from Norway.

She’d been shocked by the conditions in a Cape Town township, when her work as a social anthropologist took her there a few years ago.

“I saw how people struggle, how little there is. This time, I said let’s try to do something (about it).”

She’d begun making toys for her two-year-old son, who suffers from a rare genetic condition, and that’s when she decided to start the group. Her plan was to teach unemployed women the skill and then to donate the toys to a children’s home for the disabled.

“But I soon saw the more urgent need is really for the women to make money,” Bae says.

The women meet once a week at the Parkhurst Recreation Centre in Joburg and receive four weeks of training. The toys that are made during training are donated.

Those made after training are bought back by Bae, who then tries to sell them at markets or online.

“I try to make it very fair. They get most of the money,” she says.

The rest is used to buy new materials, such as wool, and to contribute to the women’s transport costs to the centre each week.

Rosemary Nkuna from Tembisa has been unemployed for three years and is a single mother to three school children.

“This means a lot to me, because when I come here, I have nothing in my pocket. But when I go home I manage at least to buy food and pay rent,” she says.

Another woman, Nokuthula Tabvirawona, loves the handiwork so much that she helps Bae to teach the rest of the women. “I found this is my talent. I tried so many things. I tried cooking, (but) this I can feel it in my blood.”

Bae adds: “Nokuthula has been helping me to teach because she learnt to crochet from her mother. She also helps with the language.”

Meanwhile, Annah Mandizvidza, who is a house helper and nanny, takes turns with her employer to attend the workshop.

The two of them are doing it purely to donate the toys to charity and not to earn an extra income. “I like helping people. I want to own a charity one day,” Mandizvidza explains.

Bae still buys most of the materials herself and pays for the women’s transport out of her own pocket.

“We need funding to help it get off its feet until it becomes sustainable,” she says. She is also looking for more places to sell the toys.

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The Star

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