Today I received these photos from Tom Harding, our friend at ArtAidsArt. You'll remember that ArtAidsArt assists craftswomen in South Africa, many of them HIV+, with establishing and maintaining crafts-related businesses. One of ArtAidsArt's "side projects" is to provide Black dolls for the children of these artisans; children who live in poor shanty towns and areas that were formerly designated as Black townships, and have few if any toys.
In collaboration with Dollies without Borders, and our dear friend Madeline Austin, women from St. Anthony's Hospital and St. John's, Newfoundland, provided over two dozen dolls to go to children in South Africa through ArtAidsArt. Looking through these photos, I'm not sure any of those dolls are among the ones that were given to these women, although Tom sent us a lovely message thanking us for them, noting that the women in one of the pictures--teachers at the preschool that received the dolls--are actually singing a spontaneous song of thanksgiving for the dolls! So how could I not publish these photos--even though, as I said, I don't think they're our dolls, Tom...sorry...
Anyway, it's still a great opportunity to share some fantastic photos, and put a plug in for two great organizations working with the arts and the poor! Check out www.artaidsart.org and www.dollieswithoutborders.com .
No comments:
Post a Comment