TEDDIES FOR TRAGEDIES
What it's all about
Doctors who treat children in third world countries have found that children who have their own teddies get better quicker than those who don’t have one.
The first teddies went to the Sudan in 1986..
a temporary orphanage..in a refugee camp for 2000 children with TB.
The teddies are often the only thing that the children have ever owned
..shoe bags.something to keep their one and only treasure in.
Sent to :
- Peru to handicapped children, and desperately poor people in remote mountain regions, (by mule). A local factory gave coloured tissue paper , so that the children received a wrapped Christmas present.
- Teddies replaced guns for children in an orphanage in Uganda.
- Also sent to : Mission hospitals in Zaire,
- hurricane victims in Jamaica,
- and 1500 went to the survivors of the Armenian earthquake.
- To Calcutta,
- Thailand,
- Albania,
- Nepal,
- Croatia .
Sadly, the need is always going to be there, as there will always be civil wars, famines, and natural disasters.
In Roumania, the children are only allowed their teddies at night,
as not knowing how to play, they would destroy the teddy by the end of the day.
They are put in their bags and locked away during the day.
At night the teddy is a companion. That is why the teddies have scarves,.
Severely traumatised children can fiddle with them , rather than picking the teddy to pieces, as they might otherwise do.
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Knitting Instructions.
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Size 10 (USA 3) needles
- Double knitting wool : main colour for head and paws ,and different colours for jumper, trousers, and scarf.
- Cast on 10 stitches , and with main colour knit 10 rows.
- Change to trouser colour , and knit a further 30 rows.
- Make another leg the same.
- Knit across all 20 stitches, and work for 16 rows.
- Change to jumper colour , and knit 24 rows
- Change to main colour for head, also change to stocking stitch.
- Work for 5 ½ inches. (15cm.)
- Change to jumper colour and continue the remainder of the teddy in reverse order.
- Stitch down sides of head.
- With jumper colour ,pick up 8 stitches on either side of the neck - join, and knit 20 rows.
- Change to main colour , and knit 10 rows for paws.
- Sew up the teddy, leaving a little opening in the crotch.
- (Please stuff Teddy with only healthy padding , foam rubber is not recommended, as babies may chew it.)
- Draw a thread around the neck.
- Sew diagonal corners for ears.
- Sew a happy face on the teddy.
- Scarf: Cast on 20 stitches. Knit 4 rows, and cast off.
- Tie the scarf around the teddies neck, and sew to the back of the neck.
Teddy bags may be made from any material.
They need a drawstring at the top.
Their finished size should be approximately 10" x13". (25 x 35 cm.)
