the power of we - blog action day 2012

Did you know that it's Blog Action Day today? I found out when I saw GeekTalker Claire Sale's post about The Power of We and decided to join in. The Power of We is the theme this year and one of the reasons is because "The Power of We is a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet half way around he world."

When I was approached about teaching crochet to some ladies I had imagined a little coffee and crochet session. But the active soul that had come up with the idea had other things in mind. She wanted to recycle plastic bags. She wanted to crochet them up. She wanted to get ladies on extremely limited incomes to do this. She wanted to help them market and sell the items. She wanted to "teach them how to fish". She has been running around, connecting people, convincing people of the idea, asking people to help put this together, purchasing the necessary tools, visiting the ladies that are a part of the community we live in yet we hardly see them, cutting up strips of plastic for me to play with and more! It's more than crochet or crafting or socialising. It's a community building effort. Thursday's GeekFest was a gathering of somewhat like-minded individuals, but I think tomorrow, when we have a pilot workshop to get some items produced, it will be a bridge-building activity too. The organisation heading this project is Ateeq, which means ancient or time-honoured, in Arabic. They promote the time-honoured methods of creating and the individuality and patience that used to be employed in making goods. An organisation called Rawaj, has offered a venue for the pilot workshop tomorrow in sha Allah. I'm excited to see how it all pans out. And I think it will be a great last project for me to be involved in before I leave Jeddah in sha Allah. 

If you are a crocheter and would like to get involved, do contact me: 
by email fruitfulfusion@live.co.uk
or Facebook
or Twitter

There's a lot we can do when we come together, don't you think?

And yes, still blogtoberfest-ing!