Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Craft Hope: Orphan Outreach Bracelets. Please Join Me!

I randomly stumbled across a pretty fantastic blog today:  Craft Hope.  Their aim is to share homemade crafts with those who need them most.  They are currently on Project 12 and the goal is to provide bracelets to orphans in Russia.  They give plenty of details about the dire state of affairs in Russia, but I'll just share a few:

Photo from Craft Hope

There are currently 750,000 children in the Russian orphanage system and hundreds of thousands more who are homeless in Russia.  With the final numbers totaling over 1 million.

Over 60% of the girl orphans become prostitutes and 70% of male orphans become hardened criminals.

The number of children in Russia without parental care has more than doubled in the last 10 years, even though birth rates have fallen.

Photo from Craft Hope

So what can we do to help?
Orphan Outreach and WCSG, a Christian Radio station in Grand Rapids, MI are teaming up to help children in Russia.  They'll be working at St. Petersburg's Crisis Center to help meet the physical and emotional needs of children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned.  They're also taking homemade bracelets to give to the children.  And that's where we come in.  All you have to do is make bracelets.  Hemp bracelets.  Bead bracelets.  Woven string bracelets.  Fabric bracelets.  They can be any type and any size, for any age range (they help kids ages 4-18+) so long as they're homemade.
Photo from Craft Hope.

Anyone can do this.  There isn't a particular skill set required, or material, or anything.  So how about we join forces and put a smile on a child's face?

They are accepting bracelets until June 15th, which gives me plenty of time to crank out some after finals.  I'll be mailing a box of however many I can get together...and friends, be forewarned...I will be enlisting you!  If you're in the Dallas area, I'll mail any you create!  Just let me know.

If you're not in Dallas, you can mail your bracelets to:

Carin Vogelzang
630 Griswold SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49507
Check out the Craft Hope website for more information!

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