OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2015. The Ford family at the Struandale Engine Plant in Port Elizabeth joined forces recently to produce blankets for the Funduzufe Cr?che and Day Care Centre in Veeplaas, Port Elizabeth.

Around 35 people participated in the project, including Ford employees and their families, who contributed by supplying wool or donating money to purchase wool, which they then knitted together to create 15 bright, colourful and cosy blankets.

Each blanket was made up of approximately 96 knitted blocks. This used up more than 120 balls (or 12 kg) of wool, with around 1 080 hours spent knitting the 1 440 individual blocks produced by the team.

It then took roughly 20 hours to carefully join the blocks to produce each blanket, adding a further 300 hours of hand craft. A further eight blankets that were purchased or previously made were also donated to the initiative.

The team handed all of the blankets over to the caregivers and children at Funduzufe during November, creating lots of delight and excitement.

“We set out originally to produce 11 blankets, but had a lot of support from Struandale Engine Plant employees, their families and even neighbours and friends,” said Adri van Aswegen, Quality Program Manager for MEA, who is based at Struandale and led the project.

“We were delighted to hand over a total of 23 blankets to Funduzufe, and it was amazing to see the excitement of the children when they received the blankets which were hand-made with love.”
Sindiswa Swartbooi, the founder of the cr?che, expressed her sincere gratitude for the blankets, and the ongoing support from Ford.

“You have warmed my heart today and these colourful blankets will make a real difference to our children, especially in winter,” Swartbooi stated.

She and her volunteers provide a safe haven for approximately 100 babies and children living in extremely poor conditions in the surrounding Veeplaas community – for which they rely entirely on donations.

Ford has previously donated a mobile home to the facility as a classroom, kitchen and office. For Mandela Day on 18 July, Funduzufe received 11 of the 67 cots and beds made by the Engine Plant team from scrap wood, thus making it possible for the babies to sleep during the day in comfort and safety.

During the 2015 Global Month of Caring in September, the Struandale Engine Plant team supplied and installed two converted shipping containers that are used as additional classrooms, a dining room and secure storage area.