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Summer Highlights!

9/2/2016

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We’ve had an action-packed summer, so before we move into the next craft-filled academic year, we thought it would be a good time to savour some of most exciting moments of CAI’s Summer 2016: 

 1. Getting glammed up for our Summer Ball…

​Guests indulged in a gorgeous, candlelit, three-course meal, enjoyed some fabulous live Jazz, and won some amazing prizes (a         holiday in Barbados, a family photography shoot, a luxury facial and all sorts of other goodies). It was an unforgettable night and we raised over £6500 through the event!  (You can order your photos of the night here.)
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2. Unwrapping a stunning new range of Peruvian products… 

Every time a big cardboard box from Peru is delivered to the Craft Aid office, it feels like Christmas! It's always exciting to see all the new high-quality craft products that our differently-able artisans in Arequipa have been making. These vibrant cushions made from traditional Peruvian fabric are some of our newest arrivals.
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​They’ve already been very popular at craft fairs and stalls. We’ve even been… 

3. Selling our new products in London…

​In July, we had the amazing opportunity to have a stall at Plaza Latina, “London’s best Latin American festival” with music, food, dance, art and kids activities. Our craft products may even be appearing in shops in Shoreditch soon, so keep your eyes peeled…
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4. Seeing the incredible generosity of our supporters...

​We have so nearly raised the funds we need to buy the building in Arequipa, where we want to establish our craft centre. We have raised a huge amount of money in one year, and particularly over the last few months. ​We are so grateful to everyone who has given. To find out about our vision to employ more differently-able workers in Peru, watch the video.  

5. Enjoying some crafting fun at the heart of the Harrogate community…

​This July, we ran a Craftival at Happygate, Harrogate’s new arts & music festival. This event raised money for three local charities, and we were blessed to be one of the benefiting charities! We had three bustling craft areas where visitors could learn how to produce beautiful marbled paper, make some seriously funky pom-poms, or even create their very own mosaic (if you missed the event, fear not! Watch Susie’s mosaic tutorial here.) Our disabled participants created a spectacular mosaic sign for the event, which drew a lot of attention. It was great to be able to show visitors some of the activities that we do at our therapeutic craft sessions and to share about our work with the Harrogate community.
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It’s been a busy few months, and we’re excited about what’s ahead. Soon we’ll be waving off some new volunteers, who will be moving to work at our project in Peru, but more about that next time! 

Written by
Ella Green

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Back in South America

6/4/2016

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It’s wonderful to be back in the Southern Hemisphere! To make me feel even more at home here in Arequipa, this time I’m staying with the wonderful family of Pastor Abel and his wife Betsaida. I’m here to see how our volunteer Ellie Thompson is getting on, and to escort her safely across the border to Bolivia and back so that she can renew her visa. When I left her here 3 months ago she barely had any Spanish, so it makes me *so* happy to see her chattering away with her host family like a native. She’s clearly perfectly at home and is being a huge blessing to the new craft project that Craft Aid is planting here.

​On my first full day here I was able to meet with all the young people from the larger Nuevas Fuerzas group that we’re working with. The world would describe this group as having ‘learning disabilities’, yet what they’ve learned in a short period is remarkable. They’re producing beautiful cards from Peruvian fabrics, and beads from recycled cereal boxes (hard to believe I know, but have a look at the finished result in the picture on the bottom left!) They were thrilled to bits to hear that all the cards they’ve sent to the UK so far have completely sold out, and they proudly told me that they’re selling well in Peru too. Christian, one of the group, stood up to make a welcome speech and said how pleased they were to be earning money from their work, which enabled them to buy the things they needed and help their families. It’s still very early days with this project, so it’s wonderful that those involved are already seeing the benefits. I told them that when they produce work that sells, two good things happen:
1) They get paid!
2) The world gets to see how talented and brilliant they are, and that’s just as important. It’s an opportunity for them to shine their light out all over the world, so people are able to see that God’s blessed them with talents and abilities just like everyone else.

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The following day I set off early to purchase beads and materials for some new prototypes Ellie and I are working on, before boarding a bus to Puno, near the border with Bolivia. We arrived late at night after a 7 hour journey across arid mountains populated with alpaca’s and cactuses, and very little else. Our hostel in Puno was like an icebox, so we were pleased to be on our way again at dawn the next morning, finally crossing the border into Bolivia just before lunchtime. We’re staying in the village of Copacabana (see top photo), on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest inland lake in the world. At 14,000 feet or so, it’s absolutely freezing here, but the constant sunshine makes all the colours intensely beautiful, not least the lake, which glitters sapphire blue and is ringed with moss-green mountains.
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Traditional Peruvian Fabric
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Road to Puno - note alpaca road sign!
Before leaving Arequipa I was relieved and excited to see that the building we want to help the church buy is still for sale. The vision is to purchase this beautiful old building, renovate it and create a centre which will include craft workshops, a shop and café, all entirely staffed by people with disabilities. We have just £30,000 left to raise in order to purchase it, which is so much less than justa few months ago, but we need to raise this quickly if we’re to avoid losing the building to another buyer, and there’s nothing else remotely suitable within our price range anywhere nearby. Those of you who do, please pray we can raise this money soon. The Neema Crafts centre in Tanzania was almost entirely funded by hundreds of individuals giving relatively small amounts, so if you’d like to help then whatever you can give *will* make a difference, and will get up closer to making the vision a reality.

We have to stay out of Peru for a few days in order for Ellie to get a new visitors permit when we return, for the remainder of her 9 month stay, so we’re using the time productively to reflect on what we’re done so far, plan what we’re doing next and work on new designs. I bought way more beads with me on this trip than clothes – something I’m slightly regretting now I’ve discovered how cold it is here! We set off back to the relative warmth of Arequipa on Monday, arriving sometime the next day after more hours on busses than I care to calculate. Suffice to say, its’ a long way, so please pray we get back safely. Can’t wait to get back and meet up with the rest of the differently-able people we’re working with here, it’s so encouraging to see the beautiful work they’re all creating.

Look out for pictures next week!

Written by
Susie Hart

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Eye-catching fashion!

3/29/2016

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Ella writes: After a whirlwind of a time in Peru, we arrived back in the UK a week ago. We returned to Lima for a day after leaving Arequipa to find a few more specific beads for the jewellery prototypes (such as the one in the photo above) that Ellie, Susie and Fiona had designed during the week. In Lima, we visited a silver jewellery shop, where the lady serving us asked Susie where her bracelet was from. It was one of the bracelets we had made in Arequipa with the group of people with learning disabilities. It was really encouraging to hear that there could be a market for such a product in Peru, especially from someone who is in the jewellery business herself. 

Since coming back to the UK, we've been working on a new Craft Aid film about the project in Peru, so keep a look out for this on our website (coming soon to a computer screen near you!) Whilst we were away, the craft sessions in Harrogate, Ripon and Leeds continued as usual, and some of our volunteers held an Easter stall, selling some of the crafts made in our sessions (I hear that fluffy chicks and chocolate were a feature.)

There is lots coming up for Craft Aid over the next few months, including an exhibition at a Christian youth event and our Summer Ball. (Head over to the events page and book your tickets!) Preparations are now getting underway!
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We will also be putting lots of energy into fundraising for the new craft centre in Arequipa over the next couple of months. We've raised a huge amount already, and the small baptist church in Arequipa have done a fantastic job of raising funds too. We've got half the money we need to buy a building, but time is limited. The building that we are particularly interested in won't stay on the market forever. If you would like to put on a fundraising event for us, or donate to the project, please do get in touch or go to our donate page. Any amount you can give will make a difference! The project is already transforming lives of differently-able people in the community, but there is still so much further to go if we want to have the space to train and employ the many people currently on the streets, who are living with a disability.
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Divine music, a splendid show, and much much more...

12/7/2015

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Ella writes:

Sorry we’ve been a bit quiet on the blog-front recently – life has certainly not been quiet at Craft Aid over the last few weeks. Lots of exciting happenings….
 
On the 21st November, we held our first ever candle-lit concert with acclaimed vocalist and harpist Lucy Bunce. Glimmering tea-lights, angelic singing, heavenly harp music (pardon the cliché, but ‘heavenly’ does describe it well!) and a sparkly Peruvian jewellery display, along with other Craft Aid goods, made for a very beautiful evening. All this sophistication helped raise money towards the Peru project and awareness about the work of Craft Aid International. Susie also sang a few songs with Lucy. The music was so moving that at one point a whole row of the audience were in tears!
The following week was spent preparing for the Knitting and Stitching Show, which ran from Thursday to Sunday (26th-29th November). If you haven’t heard about it before, the show is not a theatrical production starring needles and thread… it is the biggest craft fair in Europe and we were very grateful to have a stand at this year’s show in Harrogate. It was an amazing experience.
 
Thousands of people came to Harrogate from all over the country especially for the show. Our volunteer Natasha (read a bit of her story here) did a brilliant job of helping prepare everything for the show and organised some exciting raffle prizes, including a signed book by British fashion icon, Zandra Rhodes. Differently-able participants from our Harrogate craft sessions helped behind the counter and worked on the stand, teaching the public how to make beautiful fabric flower corsages. Some participants volunteered at the stand every day, and even toured the show, giving out flyers and selling raffle tickets, which is a massive task in such an unbelievably huge venue. There were halls and halls of different craft stalls!
 
The Craft Aid products sold really well, and the other exhibitors were so helpful and supportive. We were even told our stall resembled Harrods! We also had several customers asking for advice about setting up craft sessions for differently-able people in various parts of the country. It is so encouraging to know that there are people all over the UK, who share CAI’s heart to empower people with disabilities, and who want to be trained and equipped to make this happen.
As well as a harp concert and the show, we have also had stalls at two Church Christmas fairs and Susie has been at several jewellery parties and given talks for different groups of people. Even as I write, she is travelling back from a weekend of events (including another concert, a jewellery party and various talks) in Cambridge. Meanwhile, the craft sessions continue to run, and the employees at the project in Peru have been busy keeping up with the large stock demands.
 
Just want to end this post by saying a huge huge thank you to everyone who has made all of these things possible. Sending you all lots of metaphorical gold stars from CAI! (sorry we’re not sending all our volunteers and supporters real star stickers…Maybe one day…)
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Week 2 in Peru - Exciting developments!

7/15/2015

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I'm now safely back from Peru with some exciting news: Over the last few days I’ve been looking at properties there. The idea is to create a fully-fledged workshop, shop & café, all staffed by and for the benefit of disabled people !!!! Like Neema Crafts (in Tanzania), but a whole new enterprise in Peru!! In the space of two weeks it’s gone from being a vision to an actual plan, with properties viewed and budgets starting to take shape. The most ideal building I saw... is on the market for £140,000, so we have some serious fundraising to do and FAST. There’s so much need here, but so much potential. So come on folks, if we all work together I know we can do this. Watch this space for how to get involved. If you want to donate straight away please go to the donate page of the Craft Aid website or send me a message. Thank you so much for your support, encouragement, and your prayers – we’re gonna need stacks of all three!

In other exciting news, I mentioned in my last post that we were off to look for potential outlets to sell our products in Arequipa. Well, we found one! (See first picture below left). The shop is really beautiful and -unlike many people we spoke to - the owner was more than happy to help a project that will benefit people with disabilities. We will still loose a cut of the sale price to the shop though, which is entirely fair to the owner, but it would be so much better if we had our own outlet, workshop and café in one place.

Click on the pictures below for captions and more info. Essentially, the pictures show what the current building looks like, and what it could look like (red building) with a little imagination, hard work and TLC. ( And your help! ) With it's central courtyard, beautiful old architectural features and stunning views of Arequipa from the roof-top terrace, it would be the perfect location. There is even room for the church to have a permanent base here, which is very much needed as they currently rent a very unsuitable space and this is their project after all, their way of reaching out to meet the needs of the community. A beautiful place to work and to worship, with disabled people at the centre... at the heart. Please help us to make this vision a reality.

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The courtyard of the current building
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One of the architectural features of the current building.
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What the building could look like...
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Peru - Craft Training Day 1

4/9/2015

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After a day of orientating the team around Arequipa and collecting final bits of equipment and materials yesterday, we finally welcomed our first trainees today, who arrived with great excitement. We started with the physically disabled group in the morning, who're learning beadwork; and added the larger group of folk with learning disabilities in the afternoon who learnt how to make cards using die-cutting machines and local fabrics. Everyone was really keen to learn and we were really surprised at how quickly they all picked up the new skills. Within a few days they'll be experts! Despite our lack of Spanish, the warmth of the welcome and the affectionate enthusiasm of all the participants meant we were able to start building really lovely relationships with all the trainees very quickly.  There was a fab surprise for us at the end of the day; we were all enthusiastically entertained by Richard the Karaoke King and Laura (above) who performed a local dance for us all. We were even presented with hand-made chocolates which they'd made especially for us. It's been an extraordinary day, especially for the Leeds volunteers who've never experienced anything like it before. Grace - our youngest team member at 13, has been a total star and has made a lot of new friends, as have we all! ​

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    Authors:

    Susie Hart MBE
    Director of Craft Aid International
    Textile designer, Crafts instructor, Social entrepreneur, CMS Mission - Associate

    Liz Cluderay
    UK Programmes Officer and Volunteer Coordinator

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