When Russia invaded Ukraine, many of us sat by and watched in disbelief.
I remember being stunned and thinking there must be something I can do?
I realised that as someone who ran a small craft shop, I could do something and use craft as a way to;
1, reduce fear and anxiety
2, to raise money.
On the forth day of the invasion, i set up a facebook group called “ The UK stands with Ukraine Craft Club” . We quickly saw that the group grew in size primarily we realised there were other crafters in the UK wanting to do the same.
Group members set too and started creating beautiful crocheted and knitted items such as awareness ribbons. not too long after, members came up with all sorts of products such as resin keyring’s, crocheted Religious crosses, pom pom keyring’s, stunning acrylic fine artwork, fabric ribbon broaches and much more.
These are all great but we needed a way sell them for donations and as the makers agreed, 100% of the money raised should go to Ukrainian charities.
Some of the members sold them at their local churches or village halls but as I knew I had a shop, I believed that would be one way to help sell the products. I then set up a donation button on my website.
Soon I would have products Trickling in from wales, scotland and other parts of england. Mainly the products would come from local craft around Bromley. However, more importantly, it meant that the crafters work could be seen and bought and raising money in the effort to help get aid to Ukraine.
Some of the members craft but wanted to show solidarity in a different ways. Lots of crafters choose to knit postbox toppers in Ukrainian colours. Others choose to dress their gates and tress up.
When I keep in contact with the group, it is amazing how the members use the group to keep feeding ideas to other members and keep talking.
Now we feel we can help in the way of craft, to raise money at the same time as reducing our fears and anxiety levels.
Thanks for Reading. If you wish to donate in exchange for some of the wonderful crafted items, you can visit the shop or you can visit our donation page