It’s nearly that time of year again, when we think of everyone in our country and around the world that is either affected or infected with HIV and AIDS. World Aids Day is on 1 December and the Hillcrest Aids Centre has the most fabulous idea to raise awareness and create employment in the Valley of 1000 Hills – yarn bombing a tree on Old Main Road!
What is yarn bombing?
It is the latest overseas craze in public visual art, think crochet graffiti (though it’s easier to clean up and it’s mostly grannies that do it). The team plan to wrap up the tree outside the centre in crocheted squares made by local crafters. The squares will be sewn together around the trunk and branches – bright, fun and empowering for the community as jobs are created.
The Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT) is a faith based, non-profit organisation that supports and empowers people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. HACT proactively equips people through training and job creation to be self-sufficient.
Above and beyond the yarn bombing project, the HACT is teaching school children to crochet, both rural and private, old age homes are helping by crocheting squares and they are getting some of the big corporates to help do the bombing – a great way to spend a day getting to know your colleagues.
The HACT has taught over 100 ladies to crochet and has paid out over R90 000 to crafters involved in the project!
“Our tree will be the biggest structure yarn bombed in South Africa and, of course, it’s for an amazing cause,” says Jess Southey, from the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust. “The trees down the centre isle in Hillcrest look so fantastic, not that we know who did them. They rock!”
For more information about the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust, click here or phone 031 765 5866
