Saturday, February 28, 2009

Facebook for Africa


This is a story of women in the Chibini Valley in Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa and the difference Facebook is making to their lives. These women live in their village in a valley surrounded by the Drakensberg mountains, rasing families in extreme poverty.

In many cases their men are migrant workers in the city mines and HIV Aids is an everyday reality.
 In this remote existence there is no money and no way to make it.

In 2008 Advertising Agency-escapee Michelle Cruywagen saw an opportunity to change things and applied her knowledge of marketing, fundraising and knitting to start a community craft project that taught women from the Chibini Valley how to knit and create the project's signature knitted hats, called Chibinis.  Then she took this story and unique knitted items online, connecting rural Africa with global markets.

To see how Facebook brings this remote location and this inspiring story to each of us, visit the group on Facebook. (Rural Craft Design incorporating Extreme Knitters).

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