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Craft and Conversation

A Spotlight on Wednesday’s Craft and Conversation, which started a year ago.

A joint initiative run by Empathy Action and Tonbridge Welcomes Refugees, it brings together women from Syria and the UK. Here’s what it’s all about by our Becky Matthewson, a regular volunteer at craft and conversation.

Hello, I’m Becky and I volunteer with Craft & Conversation. I’d like to invite you to take a seat, grab a coffee, and hear a little of what we get up to most Wednesday mornings, a time that has become a highlight of my week.

First on the scene is always Sandy; she lights a single scented candle and warms the place up. On goes the kettle, out comes the cake, and the door is propped open in welcome.

Sandy is the gentle engine of this gathering. Her ideas fuel its smooth running, and she shows us all how we can create whatever we want.

We are a smallish group of women from near and afar. Some of us can craft, others are better at brewing the coffee (like me, although I’m grateful that Sandy never gives up on my efforts).

Each week we find needles and threads, wools or coloured pencils, or grey offcuts from fleece blankets produced for refugees (now ready to be upcycled in a very imaginative way).

Sometimes the group is quiet with concentration, the calm punctuated only by a low recital of numbers, in Arabic or English, as we count our stitches. At other times, there is raucous laughter when one of the native English speakers attempts to learn the Arabic word for, say, “bubble” (it’s a tricky one).

Together we sit and talk around a big red table, making anything from juggling balls to friendship bracelets. Today we crochet squares in cream and blue. When finished they will be shaped into a blanket for a Syrian friend with a new-born.

We even know how to build gingerbread houses for Christmas.

Which leads me onto food, because we always end up talking about food. It seems that the Syrian women among us cook in a very go-slow and thoughtful kind of way – never is it a shove-in-the-oven affair. The way they describe it makes us all stop and listen. The flavours, the spices, the eating of it. It’s a taste of home.

Craft & Conversation meets on Wednesdays between 10.30am and 12.00pm. If you’d like to be involved in this, or other work, please get in touch. Craft may not be your forte, but neither is it mine (I know I’m better at making tea).

It’s a wonderful opportunity to be part of something rather special.

Contact us to find out more about volunteering opportunities.

Filed Under: Blog, News Tagged With: community action, Craft and Conversation, Craftivisim, Crafts, Culture, Empathy, Empathy building through crafting, Handicrafts, Refugee, Syria, Syrian Refugees, volunteer, volunteering

Build a longer table (empathy at Christmas)

If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table not a higher fence” (unknown)

Having developed a number of gifts that give twice, Innovations Manager, Sandy Glanfield writes how gifts can help us ‘build longer tables’ and greater empathy this Christmas.

EAXMas

Christmas dinner calls our nearest and dearest to the table. As a mother, and often host of the Christmas dinner, I can attest to the effort that goes into preparing this feast.

Weeks of planning, cleaning, preparing, shopping and cooking. I can also put my hand up to stressing over feeling that I must achieve ‘Christmas Perfection’ – the ‘right’ food, on offer at the ‘right’ time, presented on a beautiful Christmas table, orchestrating the happiness of my guests.

As I roll up my sleeves, ready to go another round with Christmas, I have been thinking about what it really is that I am offering through this meal. Being the host at my table I have the good fortune to give my loved ones company, nourishment and nurture. I create a place to reconnect, remember, share stories, tell jokes, laugh & build new memories.

Having worked with some of the world’s most marginalised with Gifts That Give Twice and seeing how they can lift people out of the snares of poverty through employment, purpose, skills improvement and education provision for their family members. My table all of a sudden could be something much more than our happiness or even a testimony of all my tireless efforts. What I would really, really love is to have a place for someone who is not afforded such luxuries.

This is where the idea for Empathy Action’s Christmas campaign began. We wanted to kindle the love and community that takes place at the Christmas table and use it to reach others who are struggling with poverty, and overcoming war. Inviting them, through their gifts, to our tables.

I love that those hosting Christmas dinner, like me, can bring this extra element to our tables through a gift for those that they love – a beautiful handicraft with the story to share of its Maker at each place setting. This can be that ‘extra seat’ at all our tables for someone less fortunate. Or even, if you can, invite someone who wouldn’t be afforded such a meal to come to your table!

#buildlongertables

Buy or find out more at the pop-up online shop here (opening on Dec 1st- limited stock available) or contact Sandy at change@empathyaction.org.

IMG_38013FAA1690-8D3E-48E4-8C45-6DAFBD2B28376AD57317-04FC-4CCC-BCEA-9B70735951E5 116D554C-DBEF-4265-9B0E-3B4BE0F77A5C

Harare Car

B9C07ECA-5F7A-4388-A5CA-07B15B4FC3CF3278DC2A-A61F-4377-B311-99E74C58242AD3799BF7-7ABE-47D3-A644-01B04683356DF1B35E37-ABED-4338-B742-A83A35520305F19E338A-E1D9-40AB-974F-7F426A027086C52FBD7B-4249-44AD-BD2A-14149E51B0AFIMG_3941

Filed Under: Blog, News, Uncategorized Tagged With: #Buildalongertable, BuildLongerTables, Christmas, Christmas Table, Crafts, EmpathyAtChristmas, Ethical Gifts, EthicalGiftsatChristmas, Fair Trade, Handicrafts, Sandy Glanfield, Table Favors, Table Favours

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