Organisations join forces to improve the lives of Oudtshoorn toddlers

Several organisations have come together to make a difference in the lives of toddlers throughout Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo over this festive season.

It’s a venture that started in 2015, with gift boxes to underprivileged creches. With the KKNK’s ReWOLusie knitters on board, the children also received knitted or crocheted toys in their Christmas boxes.

Over a thousand teddy bears knitted by community members were handed out to children across the town. Made with lots of love by ReWOLusie volunteers.

Lezelma Pretorius of Oudtshoorn rotary says the project unites the community and shows true ubuntu.

“What I really love about this project is that everyone is involved and once a month, once in 6 weeks we come together, we have tea, we crochet, we knit, we swap patterns. We’ve got very talented ladies that teach us and it’s just everyone in the community. All the tannies in the community, at the churches, in the old age homes, everyone just comes together to help us create this magic project and put smiles on faces in our community.”

Whenever they have a moment to spare, scores of the town’s ladies get together to knit and crochet.

For them, this project is a labor of love, says Annie Boesak, Rewolusie knitter.

“We feel like we are their grandmas for these small children. We adopted this creche. We’ve been here before, we are part of this creche. Sometimes we sing here and play with the kids and it makes us happy to be part of this today to help with this teddy bear project.”

Liezl Mapoe, creche principal says the smiles on the little ones’ faces are payment enough, with gratitude from both teachers and parents.

“We are excited, we appreciate it because some of our children in the community, their parents don’t have money to give them what they want for Xmas so even these boxes that we get are highly appreciated.”

Last year the ReWOLusie ladies created 550 teddy bears. This year, they’ve almost doubled their efforts. The organisers are confident that this project will grow to be even more successful in the years to come

In April 2022, one of the country’s biggest arts festivals, KKNK in Oudtshoorn held a week-long programme of music, film, dance, art, and theatre after a two-year absence due to COVID-19.