Ms Carolyn Steyn and her 67 Blankets for Mandela campaign provided warmth for senior citizens of the Sonqoba Centre in KwaZanele, Breyten when she donated more than 67 knitted blankets last Monday.
This was during the visit of Deputy Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Mr Thabang Makwetla to KwaZanele for his Mandela Day celebration.
Carolyn explained that the initiative was born in December 2013 when Zelda la Grange, late former Pres Mandela’s assistant, challenged her to knit, sew or crochet 67 blankets to be distributed to those in need on Mandela Day, 18 July.
She accepted the challenge, but soon realised she would not be able to do it on her own.
She developed a Facebook group called “67 blankets for Nelson Mandela Day” and soon people from across the world promised to knit a blanket.
In August last year Carolyn signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with National Commissioner Zach Modise, formalising a partnership between her project and the Department of Correctional Services.
Every prison in South Africa will have the initiative introduced as part of their curriculum.
The initiative is being used as a means of rehabilitation and skills development as well as enabling those incarcerated to integrate with the broader society, knitting in the name of the greatest prisoner of them all, Mr Nelson Mandela.
The rallying call is “Knitting broken lives together”.
Mr Makwetla handed one of the blankets to100-year-old gogo Saulinah Zikalala.
“I’m handing this one over myself.
“Who knows, with gogo’s blessings I might just grow as old and strong as she is,” said Mr Makwetla, jokingly.
Gogo Juanah Soko was also one of the beneficiaries
According to Carolyn’s website, since the organisation’s launch in 2014‚ the enthusiasm for knitting for Madiba has spread around the world.
But for her the prisoners’ participation was a “momentous” new direction for the concept.
“Thousands of men and women serving sentences in South Africa are largely responsible for keeping thousands upon thousands of people in impoverished communities warmer over all the winters to come‚ in the name of the greatest prisoner of them all. This is indicative of a healing nation‚” she says.
