History

Dr Julie Stone, an Australian infant, child and family psychiatrist, returned from South Africa in 2004 determined to find a group of volunteers to make dolls for the children of the Hlabisa district, where she had visited the hospital. The Project has grown from this initial invitation to dollmakers. Tamsen Rochat, who began her clinical work as a psychologist at Hlabisa Hospital, led the project in KZN.  Since its beginning the project has attracted committed partnership in KZN and in other parts of the world. After Antoinette Cely in the USA shared her sewn doll pattern and wrote about the project in her website newsletter to dollmakers, dolls came to Hlabisa from all over the world.  They were distributed through clinics, hospitals and community groups. On her second visit Julie took 500 dolls from Perth, where the knitting and sewing mecca, Calico and Ivy, inspired people’s creativity by providing two specially designed knitting patterns and acting as a collection point with a joyful display of dolls in their shop window.

Supporters realised that this small project held huge potential, both for the children of KwaZulu-Natal, and in the resulting raised awareness of the dollmakers. Making dolls led people to develop real insights into the depredations of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the implications for the current generation of children.

Throughout 2005 momentum increased, in Perth especially, through regular dollmaking days, doll garden parties, local media articles and an ABC TV programme illustrating the power of the project in a primary school. Dolls arrived from groups in Albany, Geraldton, Toodyay and Bunbury. Agnes Johnson reported from White Plains, New York of the enthusiasm there and that the dolls were being sent directly to Mtubatuba in KZN. By September 2005, Genge Hlabisa, our Zulu community volunteer, had distributed 2520 dolls in the Hlabisa district.

2006 saw a huge leap in production to over 6000 dolls sent from Australia, hundreds from other countries and the spread of the project from Perth to Melbourne, Victoria. Over 100 requests for patterns resulted from an ABC radio interview with Dr Julie Stone, now living in Melbourne. Her international work inspired friends in London, Paris and USA to activate community groups. Over 20 schools participated in WA, with 15 community centres and hundreds of individuals.

The invitation to make dolls was extended in many ways. In Western Australia, there was a Uthando Project stall at the Festival of Perth’s screening of “Yesterday” (a film which explored the life of an HIV+ Zulu woman, and her love for her child, Beauty). Doll kits were distributed at a market and an environmental fair. Uthando Project speakers invited dollmakers to get their needles busy at Seniors’ Centres, Social Groups, Rotary Clubs, many schools and community centres. The Soroptimists on the Terrace generously donated the income from the gallery Opening Night for the Western Dollmakers Exhibition. A regular dollmaking session was set up in Leederville and several workshops were held in Fremantle at Glyde –In Community Centre and The Meeting Place.

Agnes Johnson in New York has arranged for hundreds of dolls to be sent. Dolls come from UK and Europe. They were simply posted to the Post Office in Mtubamtuba, although from Western Australia, 2 shipments were sent by sea of 1300 and 1800 dolls. See Contact Us for current postal address for the dolls.

INAUGURAL DOLL AUCTION

 Such a major fundraising event now enables us to work in partnership with community networks in KwaZulu-Natal. The intention is to support the psycho-social cluster members of the CINDI (Children in Distress) Network, in programs that focus on fostering a deeper awareness of play. In October 2006, partnerships were established with such members. Key contacts are TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education), who operate from Durban, with centres throughout KZN; the Rob Smetherham Bereavement Services for Children in Pietermaritzburg, who work with training in grief therapy; and the Sizabantwana group of schools, linked with the Psychology Department of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Setting up relationships with organisations that adhere to the CINDI principles of transparency, collaboration and sharing ensures that the dolls will find their right homes and that the funds will be applied wisely.

Julie Stone and Uthando Project coordinator Georgia Efford participated in CINDI’s 10^th Anniversary Conference in Pietermaritzburg in April 2006.  The conference reflected on lessons learned after 10 years of striving to improve the lives of children living midst the HIV and AIDS pandemic.  Many partnerships and plans were initiated during that visit.  These were consolidated when Dr Stone visited again in October, accompanied by Irene Gill and Clare Harris. It becomes clearer and clearer to us, how deep and wide and exhausting is the work of hundreds of courageous volunteer organisations and government departments committed to combating the profound effects of HIV / AIDS, poverty and malnutrition upon children and families in South Africa. The challenge before them is of a greater magnitude than the world has ever faced, and all indications are that the pandemic has not yet reached its peak.  2 million women in Southern Africa are HIV positive.  Most of them are mothers.  In KZN, more than 40% of women attending ante natal clinics are found to have the infection. Uthando Project seeks to support organisations already showing experienced commitment to the holistic health of children and their carers.

Media coverage has also helped the project, with many articles in local and national media. These articles speak on behalf of the Zulu children and often introduce us to new dollmakers.

The Uthando Project was honoured to receive the Group Award by the Western Australian AIDS Council for their annual World AIDS Day (Dec 1^st) celebrations,

Meanwhile in New York, Agnes Johnson has generated great action and awareness of the project and its intentions with the support of the Youth Bureau for the City of White Plains, NY, Edward Williams Elementary School in Mt Vernon, NY, Sister’s Uptown Bookstore in Harlem, Cedar Knolls School for Boys and Girls in Hawthorne, Manhattan Pentecostal Church, NY Phelam Art Center, the Cities of Yonkers and New Rochelle, African Folk Heritage Circle in NY and WESPAC in Westchester,NY.

After presenting a poster about Uthando’s work to the World Association of Infant Mental Health Meeting in Paris, July 2006, Dr Julie Stone was invited to speak to the Unitarian Chapel community in Hampstead, London. A creative and enthusiastic group of doll makers, led by Claire Julian, has been busy making dolls since then.  And the chapel community network is inspiring other groups to become involved.

If we take a long look at the Uthando Project, and how it has grown, we can all be proud, because anyone can contribute to this grass roots movement. In fact thousands have done so. It is so simple. People everywhere can make dolls using the basic patterns offered by Uthando volunteers, or their own patterns, and send the dolls directly to TREE in Durban.

Because we are a grassroots project, it is open to anyone with likeminded intentions to take on leadership and contribute by spreading the work of the project through their own networks.

There is a core group of volunteersin Perth who check the Western Australian dolls for suitability, design and roadtest new patterns, do the packing, handle enquiries, visit schools and community groups, instigate and encourage new dollmaking groups and raise funds. All running costs (including travel to KZN) are covered by the individuals concerned.

Play begins with the making of the dolls. Love is embedded in these handmade dolls, which carry with them the warm intention of the best possible outcomes for the child.

We distribute, by email and post, newsletters that give detailed accounts of visits to KZN and other dollmaking news. Please request any newsletters by email to Joy Whitfield, communicator or register for our newletters by filling in the form on the left of this page.

2007 – 2008 : EXPANSION OF PROJECT

The whole project picked up pace and expansion in these 2 years. By the end of 2006 we had sent 8000 dolls to the children of KwaZulu-Natal. By September 2008 we had reached 18,000 dolls.

Our partnership with TREE (Training and Resources in Early Education) enabled the distribution of the dolls through their substantial network of women trained in early education. Both TREE and Rob Smetherham Bereavement Services for Bereaved Children (RobS) are members of the Psycho-Social cluster within the CINDI organisation centred in Pietermaritzburg. Through their partnership we arranged workshops in KZN for training of women in dollmaking. These workshops in March 2007 and October 2008 have forged many relationships with many organisations in KZN and given the Australian women who led the workshops with RobS , the precious and rare experience of being with the women of KZN. From this we are able to speak about the responsibilities of the gogos, the inroads of HIV/AIDS and poverty and especially the courageous work undertaken by hundreds of local organisations. We show our loving concern by providing dolls and giving some training, but the real work is done by those in South Africa who rise above personal needs and give of themselves to their families and communities.

To get a rich taste of these valuable experiences please read Julie Stone’s reports written during the workshops

Through our financial sponsorship, RobS worked with TREE to evaluate their attitudes and practices in the field with regard to the emotional needs of children, as distinct from educational, physical, nutritional needs, etc. This was accomplished in 2 stages and brought these two organisations closer still. TREE has trained thousands of women in early childhood education, provides government registered training at many levels, has earned the highest recognition of their work in the whole of South Africa and has a staff of around 60.

THREE YEAR FUNDING PLEDGE TO ROBS

RobS saw how a grant of approx $27,000 AUD would make a huge difference to their work with communities and other NGO’s. Their staff is small. Their vision and expertise is authentic, practical and inspirational to all those who put top priority on the emotional wellbeing of children. This grant enables employment of a graduate psychologist, a young, dynamic Zulu woman. We are very happy to apply our funding to an organisation devoted to counselling through play and in training communities where children are at risk. Usually, donor organisations want to see their funding in bricks and mortar or in measurable increments.RobS and Uthando Project are dedicated to greater awareness by the world at large for the psychological needs of children, carers and their communities. And in bringing change. A quote from RobS Annual Report 2007. “…the journey included the awakening of the hope within us that things can change when people come together to help children”. From that same report, in one field where Robs worked with 20 partner organisations, we read that 1817 children were directly reached.

Rachel Rozentals-Thresher is the CEO for RobS. This is her favourite quote from one of the women following a Uthando Project workshop. It speaks volumes.

“Everybody, when we go home now, lots of us, we are going to the grassroots. And we’re having English classes and such. We all know children who have difficulty in their home. Maybe it is our own home. And it is difficult for us to speak to them. And we make all our instruments, that is where we can express. We always see the outward thing easily. They need food, they need clothes okay, go and play. But in the meantime, they are still starving. In the meantime, we can still see, “I don’t know how we can help that child.” And this is the tools in our hands. Where we can meet them where they need to be met in their hearts and in their emotions so that they can grow up, work through this emotions, learn to talk, learn to communicate, and to express the feelings, and not become hard in their hearts as many of us are because we haven’t had the opportunity. No body came to us to talk and to teach us to talk. Even for us, we can catch up and communicate what’s inside our hearts. I want to encourage all of us that when we go home, and we look at the doll, we must remember that it is an instrument to meet with the heart of someone else.”

Uthando Project committed itself to raising $27,000 each year for three years. We achieved this for 2008 and are now active in seeking financial support for 2009 and 2010. Would you consider funding Uthando Project? It will be contributing to a real “hands on” change for thousands of children potentially redesigning their future. Please see our funding section.

CHILDREN’S EVENTS IN WA

Often we have participated wholeheartedly in public events focussed on children. Naked dolls are dressed and embellished with beads and shoulder bags. At these events we can distribute information sheets and patterns freely. Contacts with schools are made, new dollmakers welcomed

COMPASS ODYSSEY TALK

The Gooseberry Hill Group spent several hours with Darren “Crusty” Humphrys of the safari business, Compass Odyssey in South Africa, learning much more about the culture there. This group, the central management of Uthando Project organisation, has also been blessed with meetings and discussions with African women and families.

DIRECTOR, TREE, PAM PICKEN

Then, just before Christmas 2008, the Director of TREE, Pam Picken, held 30 dollmakers rivetted with her down to earth, yet inspirational, description of TREE’s work and vision and the impact on her own life. See the Newsletter for December 2008.Out of Pam’s talk came the recommendation of dolls being sent to TREE for their Family Play Facilitators. These are women who are trained to teach play to families and groups of children who are too remote to belong to a crèche. Their situation is such that many of these children arrive at primary school never having seen a book or pencil and yet there are high expectations of their formal education. Pam explained that only 14% of young children experience any “structured” play. The idea is to make up Family Groups of dolls for the Family Play Facilitators to carry with them (this may mean walking for kilometres) and for these dolls to be rich in expression and possibilities of play. A family might have a granny, perhaps a grandfather, and adult female and male, lots of children, a baby, an animal, little toys, two glove puppets, two soft knitted balls, some pieces of fabric for tying around the children or the dolls as scarves or wraps. A large piece of lightweight fabric to be a play mat and all put into a lightweight carry bag, approx 50 x 60cms with handles.

INCREASE IN DOLLMAKERS

The characters of the dolls became richer and arrived from all corners of Australia. For instance one lady travelling around Australia would hand over her finished dolls to someone travelling to Perth for easier delivery. It seems almost churlish not to name all of the schools and groups who so generously supplied dolls during these years. The list would cover 60 schools and probably 30 organisations. Many schools incorporated the Uthando dollmaking deeply into their general curriculum and often involved their wider community and the media. Our postal data base increased to nearly 200 and our email data base to 500.

REGULAR DOLLMAKING GROUPS MEET

Two other regular dollmaking groups meet every month, in WA, in Leederville with Alison Egan and in Mosman Park with Lynne Jones. There were huge contributions of dolls from Ruth de Wolf (WA) and Margaret Gaal’s group (Victoria).

ART DOLL AUCTION

September 2007 proudly represented the work of Uthando Project and the generosity of Western Australian dollmakers, resulting in major fundraising.

GREETING CARDS

Geoffrey Fisher’s generosity in producing BEAUTIFUL photos of the main “Art dolls” in the Auction, enabled us to produce a series of gift cards which have been a consistent fundraiser (several thousand dollars) ever since.

FILM MAKING

A constant question has been ‘How do the KZN children respond to our dolls?” One has perhaps to experience the scatteredness of the houses of rural KZN and the cheek by jowl life of the city townships all under a veil of poverty and frustration of lack of opportunity. Add to this the debilitating effects of HIV/AIDS and the proper protection of the privacy of the child to see that we can’t just ask for someone to take photographs of the children with the dolls. We do have some photos of children at crèches receiving the dolls. We get our richest feedback from real stories told to RobS and TREE of the love of their dolls by children. And the difference it makes to their carers. With this in mind, Dr Julie Stone (Melbourne) and film maker, Natalija Brunovs (Perth) by following appropriate protocols, and by invitation, made a short documentary film of two Zulu sisters, “Goodness and Happiness” coming to terms with their crucially changed lives after the death of their mother. The film also captures children at play and the effects of learning how to make a doll at a Uthando Project workshop in Centocow, KZN. We intend that this sensitive film is shown to hundreds of schools and groups around the world.