Beading mothers weaving positive lives…

Kate Gray and a team of HIV-positive beading mothers were recently commissioned to design and make a beaded South African flag to sit in the head of a walking stick for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday present. The inlaid flag had to fit the Africa-shaped handle, which proved to be an exacting task. Fortunately several experienced beading mothers rose to this unusual challenge, spurred on by the fact that it was for Madiba, while another mother wove the words ‘Happy Birthday Madiba’ on a beadloom.

 

These mothers are all members of the Positive Beadwork project, an initiative of the Kidzpositive Family Fund. This non-profit organisation was founded by a group of healthcare professionals at Groote Schuur Hospital to help the HIV-positive children attending the paediatric ward G25.  It was quickly realised that most of the mothers, struggling with the effects of their own HIV infection as well as caring for their sick children, needed financial support.

 

The Positive Beadwork project, with a start-up donation of R4 000 from St Cyprians School, was launched in 2002 as an income-generating project for over 60 of these embattled mothers. Kate Gray, while still working as a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, volunteered to help. Before long the project had become an all-consuming and full-time passion as she oversaw the mothers progress from making simple AIDS pins and flags to complex, customized designs on beadlooms. Positive Beadwork now offers a varied range of products and specialises in large orders for campaigns, corporates and conferences both nationally and internationally. The project has been given some prestigious commissions, like making beaded flags (8 X 11 cm) for the 29 different European countries when Britain took over the chairmanship of the European Economic Community a few years ago.

 

Well over 100 mothers attending Groote Schuur and the Crossroads Clinic now receive a regular monthly income from their beading activities, which they can do at home. This means that they can now clothe and feed their families while remaining on hand to look after their children. However, regular orders are needed to sustain the project which is currently paying out between R15 000 and R18 000 each week to the mothers.

 

For more information contact Kate Gray on 021 671 2904 or 084 310 7916, email beads@kidzpositive.org or go to their website.