Sharlotte Baloyi from Nkowankowa has been crocheting for the 67 Blankets for Nelson Mandela Day project with a team in Morningside in Johannesburg. This year Baloyi decided to gather her friends and start the project locally. On Wednesday, July 10, the women officially started crocheting. On Mandela Day, they will be donating the blankets to Noah’s Ark Children’s Home in Tzaneen.

Baloyi is leading the team and also teaches new members the craft. The project is self-funded, and the team is looking for more people to join them and for donations, they are not looking for money, but for working materials in the form of wool and crochet needles.  Leona Mabuza, a retired teacher, told the Herald that she enjoys crocheting because it relaxes her mind.

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“I learned to crochet back in the days at school when it was still part of the curriculum, but I left it slide along the way. “I started doing it again in 2020, due to the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic. “More people should start crocheting as it is therapeutic,” Mabuza explains. Baloyi says the project will continue after Mandela Day because there are many needy people who need their blankets.  For more information, contact Sharlotte Baloyi at 076 833 8421.