Peace love tolerance road trip is changing lives one stitch at a time

Durban — Armed with wool and the enduring legacy of Nelson Mandela, people around the world have birthed a knitting revolution and a nonprofit organisation (NPO) which is changing lives, one stitch at a time.

The NPO, 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day, visited Durban this week as part of its countrywide Peace Love Tolerance road trip.

Founder Carolyn Steyn said they spent time with the orphaned and vulnerable children from LIV village at Cottonlands, near Verulam, where they shared their blankets, all made by volunteer knitwits.

Steyn said: “I've never seen a place like this in my life.

“I've gone to lots of orphanages around the country, but this is just really quite extraordinary.

“For children who have gone through such trauma in their lives, to find themselves in this place must be so healing.

“There’s just such love and such commitment and such dedication,” Steyn said.

She said the Peace Love Tolerance road trip would visit various other places around the country.

“Every year we do something that is sort of outstanding.

“The first big activation we did was covering the grounds of the Union Buildings in a sea of blankets, thousands of blankets as far as the eye could see, with Madiba smiling down upon them.”

It all started in December 2013 when Zelda la Grange, who was Madiba’s assistant for many years, challenged Steyn to knit, sew, or crochet 67 blankets for Mandela Day.

Steyn knew she would not be able to do it on her own and asked for help on social media. The response was overwhelming and led to the establishment of 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day.

“I had to scramble for help and I didn’t know if I’d get 67 blankets in time for Mandela Day 2014.

“And now, 10 years later, I can comfortably say that we have distributed more than 167000 blankets in South Africa alone,” said Steyn.

Today it’s a global movement that doesn't only produce blankets. In their “downtime” the knitwits create scarves which are wrapped around trees with a love letter, and anyone who needs a bit of warmth is welcome to take it.

Steyn said their work was carried out by volunteers, known as knitwits, who meet in homes, gardens and various other spaces from as far afield as Italy and Ireland to knit or crochet.

“In Italy, the blankets go to the migrants. Of course, sometimes a person who’s a South African who’s living in a different country feels the need for their blanket to come back home.

“So we have received blankets from people in different countries.

“When we did our major blanket display, our massive Mandela masterpiece, a lot of those black blankets came from India,” said Steyn.

“They’ve even patented the word ‘knitwit’.”

Sunday Tribune