“UBUNTU BEANIES” Project by Maria Ross
Maria Ross (Team leader of Leisure Travel, from Terra Nova Tours in Cape Town), contacted Uthando in June 2020 with a beautiful and inspiring initiative.
Knitting began as a hobby for Maria, in 2019, as she taught herself to knit beanies. People soon wanted to purchase the beanies, and so with an incentive to support at-risk communities, UBUNTU BEANIES was established.
Instead of giving the knitted beanies away as gifts for free, Maria would ask each recipient to remember our exchange in life, and pay for the beanie by making a donation to Brave Rock Girl, through Uthando.
Maria selected the word “Ubuntu” because of its meaning – “I am because we are, or humanity towards others”.
Maria had the idea that every little bit of support helps, and the purpose of the beanie project is to live the meaning of Ubuntu.
UBUNTU BEANIES are not specifically priced (aside from the sponsored beanies), as Maria would prefer each person to decide for themselves, as to how much they are able to afford and donate.
You can follow UBUNTU BEANIES on Instagram and Facebook, under the handle @ubuntu.beanies
When approaching Uthando with her concept, Maria wrote the following:
“Howzit! My name is Maria Ross, I live in Cape Town and I started the ubuntu.beanies project in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in April 2020.
What is this all about?
I knit beanies for a good cause. Each beanie is unique and individually tailored to your needs. You decide the price you want to pay for your handknitted beanie (plus courier fees). With the proceeds I not only finance the production of beanies, I also support a soup kitchen and a socially sustainable girls’ project in the townships of Cape Town.
With the Sponsor-a-beanie initiative, you pay a fixed price that supports the above projects and donate your self-designed beanie to a senior club in Khayelitsha.
The projects
Uthando (means “Love”) is a non-profit organization that collects donations for community development projects in Cape Town’s townships. In addition to supporting the Sinovuyo Seniors Club to which the beanies of the Sponsor-a-beanie campaign go, proceeds also go through Uthando to a project called Brave Rock Girls, a girl-led project in Khayelitsha that provides girls at risk with access to education, health care and safety. Soup-a-heroes by Drifter Brewery is the third project supported by ubuntu.beanies. After the alcohol ban in South Africa due to the pandemic from March 2020 onwards, restaurants and local micro-breweries had to rethink and started using their huge brew kettles for other purposes. Since then, Drifter has been heavily involved in the production of soups, which are delivered to NGOs in Cape Town’s townships. The Drifter Brewing Company has fed more than 250,000 people in ten different communities in Cape Town and continues to use parts of the brewery for these purposes even after the ban on alcohol came to an end.
How can you help?
Feel free to order a beanie from me for yourself or your loved ones or take part in the sponsor-a-beanie campaign if you cannot find a personal use for a beanie.
Contact Information:
Follow me on Instagram or Facebook.
To order a beanie, just follow the link on Instagram in my bio or click on “contact us” on Facebook.
THANK YOU for making the world a better place together with me by supporting this project.
Lots of love from Cape Town”
