Following up on yesterday’s post of Victoria Falls. Thank you so very much to all of you for your kind offers to donate supplies to the group. It is heartwarming to see such thoughtfulness and the response was totally unexpected! I have given this some thought and although tempted to accept your generous offers it may not be the most practical solution.
The postal system in South Africa is very unreliable, in fact it does not work – so the chances are your donations would get lost in cyber space. The only way it could reach us is if you sent it by Courier and besides the great expense to yourselves I would have to pay customs duties on each parcel when it arrived. Then I would have to forward it to the Victoria Falls and again they would have to pay customs duties. This is the way it is in Africa, duty is charged on all imported items.
I could put a donate button on my site and any donations received would go towards purchasing threads, needles and hoops for the embroidery group at wholesale prices. A donation of US$6 would be enough to purchase a whole box of DMC stranded cotton, and this would go a long way to enabling them to get going with their embroidery co-op and becoming self sufficient. The amount you donate would be completely up to you and I could purchase the items and send them to Gail who would make sure they were delivered to Victoria Falls. I will of course keep you posted with their progress from time to time and let you know what we donated. How does this sound?
Trish
Good Job
That sounds great Trish.
Thank you for your generosity and help for this group.
I’d love to donate to their cause.
Looking forward to the next step.👏🏻👏🏻
This sounds like the correct thing to do.Thank you for offering this service.
I will be joining this endeavor too! Thrilled to help. Count me in.
I think this is a wonderful idea and a great way for all of the embroidery community to take part, and help these folks make a living for themselves. You can count me in!
Best Wishes, Judy Cox, Colorado
A donation button is fine with me. I live in Florida so that would probably be a lot faster too.
I agree with all the others that this is a great idea. I plan to join the others in helping to make the supplies available to these ladies. I also hope they will gain more publicity and a good market for their work!
Perfect solution. Let us know when the button is ready to use. Anything to help people have the means to embroidery and better their lives.
Good idea. 🙂
I think you donation button idea is great. It will also allow you to determine the needs of the group and buy exactly what they need.
A Donation Button is the way to go…and…thank you for your time and thoughtfulness!
I think you donation button idea is great. It will also allow you to determine the needs of the group and buy exactly what they need.
Trish, that is an excellent idea. I was thinking about this when I read your post. You might just check the legal liability you might incur in accepting the responsibility for contributions sent to you. We wouldn’t like you to get entangled in some legal imbroglio over this good intention. I applaud your efforts to help our fellow stitchers and shall await further developments.
Thank you. As long as I keep receipts for the materials purchased with the proceeds, there is no problem in accepting contributions. As you know I donate the proceeds of the LaLa land project every month to the Fair Trade Organization and this will be handled in the same manner. Trish
Great idea! Add that button and I’ll share with friends!
YES! I’m in. I thought the prohibitive fees and shippings stop me to say I’ll help someway.
The button is a great idea. Thanks Trish
great!
I like the idea as well. And I appreciate you taking the time to let us help! I am for anything that will help these folks have just a bit of a better life for themselves. I hope there are others out there that would do something similar.
C’est une bonne idée, Trish, une excellente idée. Si le bouton “arrive” sur ton site, c’est certain que je ferai un don. Amitiés de France.
Your suggestion sounds great!
The donate button sounds like a great idea. Please post a link when it is set up. Second only to the joy of stitching is the joy on enabling others who love to stitch!
Great idea! I’d love to see their work and possibly purchase something
Trish, well done to you. As I said to you on the phone earlier, I have had the experience of doing something similar for the Zimbabweans over the last 18 months or so. I had written an article for Inspirations Magazine about my trip to Harare and within days of the article being published, I received unexpected and unsolicited emails offering donations to these ladies. I accepted a lot of thread (and other needlework supplies) both here, through my US post box and, the best of the lot, a thread bank set up by Inspirations Magazine specifically for the Zimbos – they set it up when I told them what was happening and what a warm feeling it gave me. Yes, it cost us quite a bit in courier fees and duties, shared by Inspirations and myself but at the end of the day, we sent somewhere between 9 and 12 (I’ve forgotten now how many) huge boxes up to Harare. They went in the trunks of ladies who came down by car and had some space and also got sent up to a ‘runner’ in Joburg who delivered them in Harare. The feeling that I had throughout the 18 months, a feeling that I still have now, is that despite all the dreadful stuff going on in the world, there are still so many fabulous, generous and giving people out there. We tend to forget that when we watch the television news. From me (and I am sure you too, Trish) I would like to commend all of you fabulous people. Africa is a difficult place and what you do is so much appreciated.
Both you ladies are so generous in your open hearted way in which you help other. I’m in!
Fantastic solution as many will want to donate but postage is prohibitive from other countries.
I think the donate button is a great idea and I would certainly use it.
I would also love a whole box of DMC threads for $6. Ha ha! If only the prices here were so low.
Seriously though this would be a fantastic way for us more fortunate people to help spread some happiness by way of stitching. It always makes me happy and it would be good to pay forward. X
Donate button great idea!
Great solution, please do it.
an excellent idea Trish, most of us think nothing of spending £6-10 each time we shop for threads and fabrics. I never buy just the colour I wnet into the shop for.
I am quite happy with this solution.
What a lovely solution. Put the button on and count me in.
I think that’s a great solution to your dilemma Trish, it’s lovely of you to organise this so that group can enjoy embroidery as much as we all do.
I like it.