kascare
May 26, 2010
How to make a difference, one square at a time.
I took this photograph in mid-April. These children were asleep on a scrap of discarded linoleum on the red mud of a squatter camp creche in Soweto, South Africa. They numbered 32, clinging to life in a hovel of waste plastic, plywood and corrugated iron. They varied in age from three months to four years.
Two of the three-month-olds were already ill with AIDS. They were expected to die within weeks. Some of the children were orphans, among an estimated 1.4 million in South Africa alone. That number swells by an estimated 500 every day.
Eighteen months ago, a South African relative described the HIV AIDS disaster unfolding in her country. She hands out blankets and food to homeless children begging on the streets of her home town, Johannesburg. World Vision estimates the number of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa could reach 40 million by 2050.
I’m a photo-journalist, creative director and copywriter. My wife, Sandy, is a senior graphic designer and web infopreneur. She and I worked in Africa and had our family there. Now we need to give back.
We’ve built a charity, KasCare, which created Knit-a-square. It asks knitters and crocheters worldwide to send 8”/20cm squares to South Africa. There our volunteers sew them into blankets for the poorest orphans and abandoned children.
The campaign runs online. In April, we unpacked square number 75,000. It was among those sent by 3,300 knitters from 35 countries. The squares translate into 2,142 blankets so far, as well as more than 5,000 items of hand-knitted clothing. Our target for the end of 2010 is 105,000 squares.
Having given up our creative business to do this work, we’ve rejoined Artisan to find freelance assignments. When we were employers, we saw they got results.
World awareness of this almost unknown issue is crucial. Please visit kascare.com and spread the word however you can. Even better, you can make a donation at the same site.
- Roger McDonald (founder of Kascare)
And a great thank you to Vicki-Anne Craigen and Artisan for making this story possible.
