Crafty Corner South Africa News and Media releases
Feb 2020 news
Upcycle snuffle mats are now available at the Upcycle landfill avoidance shop situated at 158 Long Road, Greymont in Jhb.
In case you don’t know, a “snuffle mat” is a material feeding mat for dogs. (Apparently cats love them too!)
Basically, a snuffle mat stimulates a dogs natural foraging instinct by mimicking the hunt for food in grass & fields, stimulating their noses & brains to earn their meals. You hide treats around the mat, and then your dog uses his nose to find them, getting a tasty treat as a reward. A dog’s sense of smell is 50 times stronger than humans. Your dog sees the world through his or her nose!
Sharpeville Community Centre
Crafty corner have been involved in a project to upskill 6 crafters on the art of felting with pure wool. The idea was to take 6 unemployed individuals from the Vereeniging community of Sharpville and to teach them how to make various products from pure wool.
This is an awesome community and teaching them has been an absolute pleasure.
The training course ran over 6 weeks and took them from the absolute beginning of learning the various types of wool from mohair to marino and saw them developing their skills and then learning to dye their own colours and eventually making their own slippers and hats!
The Sharpeville community centre is set up at the old Sharpeville police station. The various rooms and facilities have been now converted in to a crafting hub supporting a wider range of handmade crafts such as :
Felt works
Sewing and Leather
Beading, imported and hand made at the glass works
Metal work
Silk screens and printing
Candle and soap works.
Each one of these activities are run and managed by different members of the community Crafty Corner was lucky to get involved with the community by teaching them felt and sewing works with the aid of the Department of Arts and Culture. Since the successful conclusion of the training program Crafty Corner has been going back to the community to provide on-going support and training in various others skill sets. This on-going project is self-funded so it has been a long slow road that has started to show the fruits from the dedication of the community and the Crafty Corner team.
You can look at more info on the wet felt training project here
As with any community project support and funding from external sources help the project along the road of success. We are always looking for assistance and funding for our community projects from corporate bodies as well as private funders.
If you want to know more of our CSI and SED operations please feel free to contact us via email
Orange Farm community centre
The Orange Farm community is a semi-rural, undeveloped area 40km South of Johannesburg. The township is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa, with most estimates giving a population of 1 million people.
The challenges that are faced by this community are high levels of poverty; low levels of literacy; lack of basic services; lack of access to justice and health care facilities; lack of consultation between the local government and community members; high levels of violence (generally alcohol-related); lack of employment which leads to increased crime.
Upcycle have spent a few years in this community on many levels and hope to continue making a difference to the people in Orange Farm one bit of junk at a time. (From teaching a group of ladies to make teddies using scrap fabric and another project about making products from waste to generate an income for themselves. We have become very attached to the people from Orange farm as they have passion and drive to make a difference to their lives.
The Orange Farm Human Rights Advice Centre was established to alleviate the suffering of the community members through sustainable grassroots initiatives aimed at local empowerment, to improve access to health services and justice and educational opportunities in order to fulfill basic human rights.
They also aimed to make the community aware of their rights enshrined in the Constitution and to go further and engage (and influence) public policy processes which would lead to accountability at local government level. The community still continue to visit the premises seeking its services. This is why stakeholders in the community met to look at possibilities of resurrecting the centre and why the centre is still in operation despite the many obstacles it faces such as funding, land ownership, proper facilities and poor service.
As the big recycling companies are taking over the small informal guys are getting less and less market share and are slowly being squashed out of the market. This poses a big threat to the Human rights center as the recycling was helping fund the running of the Human right center. Upcycle are training the people from the recycling center and the local community how to create products from the waste that can be sold at a higher value then recycling can currently produce.
Upcycle Would like to assist the center to uplift its community and make a positive difference to the planet at the same time.
Your funding can be the catalyst for real, sustainable change
We would like to encourage any corporates that would like get involved in a SED or CSI project to contact Winnie McHenry either on winnie@upcycle.co.za or 082 780 3673.This community is making things happen and you would be very proud to be the funder of such an awesome group of people.
Please follow our story so far. Here