Crochet without borders

I am now up to the border on Annie's rug (I stayed home on Monday - because I wasn't feeling great, had sent everything to press early and have weeks of sick leave, so decided why not? - and I got ahead on all those little ends, once I got out of bed).

But the other night at church we had a spotlight on missions and as part of that watched a short video on the Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa founded by Catherine Hamlin and her late husband (I've posted briefly about this before here). The video featured the opening of Desta Mender (‘Joy Village’), a little community for women who are not able to be healed completely by surgery and require ongoing care and support.

I noticed in the video that there were many shots of the women in this village knitting or doing something that might have been crochet (it was a passing camera sweep) and that there were a lot of knitted blankets to be seen, which snagged my attention (I've got crochet on the brain!). I've since discovered from the Australian Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund site (scroll to the bottom of that page) that they are very pleased to receive knitted or crocheted blankets for the patients of the hospital.

I was actually more curious as to where the ladies doing the knitting were sourcing their wool etc (I assumed this was a means of creating a livelihood, but they may have been doing it for the hospital), than I was about sending over completed blankets, but I now have it all on the radar. If you like to knit/crochet blankets, or even do patchwork, you might like to consider the Fistula Hospital as a destination.

Note: I took the pictures from this website, to show their gorgeous rugs! (And I love the website wallpaper!)