Ollaberry pupils knit blankets for Syrian child refugees

A North Mainland school has become involved in a project to help Syrian refugees, with some pupils learning to knit so they could help make blankets.

The 13-pupil Ollaberry school took up the cause after staff member Julia Odie found out from an online forum about the plight of Syrian children living in refugee camps in Turkey.

The pupils had been doing a project about “compassion” and embarked on knitting squares for blankets for the children – one pupil even learned to crochet so that he could make a crocheted square.

Squares had already poured in from other people who had heard about the appeal and the Ollaberry children kept tally of the donations and added to them by knitting (or crocheting) their own squares. Squares by pupils, staff, former pupils and former staff were sewn together to make a school blanket to be sent to Turkey. Hats were also made and donated for the refugee children.

Now Mrs Odie, Ollaberry head teacher Marianne Raikes, together with Janette Ruddick from Ollaberry and Kathy Manson from Mossbank, wish to thank all of those from across the isles, including the Ollaberry pupils’ parents, who have helped with the appeal.

Mrs Odie said: “We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of knitters and crocheters the length and breadth of Shetland.”

The women also want to thank the shops and businesses which acted as drop off points: Shetland Art Company/ Shetland Fudge, Lerwick; Central Garage, Brae, Ollaberry and Tagon Stores, Voe – and, of course, Ollaberry School.

Mrs Odie said: “We have parcelled up over 18kg of squares as well as 145 hats in all sizes from premature baby and up. Some of the squares have been sewn into blankets and are ready to go when they get to Turkey, others will be sewn together by a group called LILY (Love in the Language of Yarn) when they get there. We also received funds towards the cost of postage, both through direct donations and through the sale of knitted Easter chicks – and we knitted a lot of them!”

Mrs Raikes said pictures of the scenes in the camps showed places of “great sadness”. The camps appeared to be bursting at seams, she said, with children with no shoes lining up to get water, and, in one shocking image, three new-born triplets lying on a piece of newspaper in the snow.

Mrs Raikes said: “We just decided to start doing it [knitting]. We talked to the children at school and every child has learned to knit, Julia and I taught them with another parent now that knitting is no longer taught in school.”

Every pupil, from P1 to P7, produced a square. So many were eventually produced by parents and members of the public that three boxes went to Turkey at a postage cost of £80 per box, making the money made from the sale of small items like the Easter chicks to sell to pay for the postage especially welcome.

Mrs Raikes said: “I really hope it makes a difference to people that they know someone’s thinking about them. A lot of them could have left their fathers and brothers behind or lost all their families. This is a real way to help people.”

Any further donations will be used for charities with a UK base, and the women would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to continue to help the charities.

This will include Operation Orphan’s Keep a Child Warm project in Eastern Europe which supplies coats, hats, gloves and scarves to children; Greenfields Africa who supply ‘mama bags’ to pregnant women who attend ante-natal classes. These contain a one-metre square blanket and a full set of baby clothes – cardigan, hat, bootees, babygro and vest.

COMMENTS(2)

Add Your Comment
  • irene whelan

    • April 5th, 2013 15:19

    your kindness is wonderfull a huge thank you to all .i am 1 of the women who join up the donated squares here in kusadasi ..we love to see the squares arriving from all over the world ..the world is full of beautiful kind folk .xxxx

    REPLY
  • Dianne Jones

    • April 5th, 2013 15:26

    A huge thank you to Julia Odie and the pupils of Ollaberry School there is something very special about children helping children. We at LILY (Love In the Language of Yarn) are looking forward the recieving the squares from Shetland and sewing them into blankets for the Syrian children living in the refugee camps here in Turkey. Thank you to everyone involved to are all wonderful!

    REPLY

Add Your Comment

Please note, it is the policy of The Shetland Times to publish comments and letters from named individuals only. Both forename and surname are required.

Comments are moderated. Contributors must observe normal standards of decency and tolerance for the opinions of others.

The views expressed are those of contributors and not of The Shetland Times.

The Shetland Times reserves the right to decline or remove any contribution without notice or stating reason.

Comments are limited to 200 words but please email longer articles or letters to editorial@shetlandtimes.co.uk for consideration and include a daytime telephone number and your address. If emailing information in confidence please put "Not for publication" in both the subject line and at the top of the main message.

200 words left

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

logo

Get Latest News in Your Inbox

Join the The Shetland Times mailing list to get one daily email update at midday on what's happening in Shetland.