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Three talented mums have been staging crochet and knitting workshops across the kingdom for the past five years to transform fabric into caps and woolly wonders to keep migrant workers warm all winter long.
The scarf initiative, otherwise known as Learn and Serve, was conceptualised by education support worker Anshu Adrekar, who used to live in the kingdom for seven years before moving to Australia, and her Momwise.bh Facebook group back in 2015.
This group is a platform for mothers that wanted to learn something new, to meet other like-minded individuals and network, to resolve regular mum queries and to support one another as a whole. Over time Anshu’s group reached about 4,000 followers all eager to learn and grow together.
“I began asking for suggestions about what activities mums would like to work on together,” she explained. “A few mothers suggested that we should start a craft club and then there were also suggestions that we should do something for the community. Most of the women expressed that they wanted to learn either knitting or crocheting.
“That’s when I thought why not combine craft and community work together. We had mums volunteering to teach and some wanting to learn either of the crafts.”
Anshu’s dear friends and fellow Learn and Serve organisers, Ashwini Anil and Reem Bali began to orchestrate a plan. Ashwini suggested that all the products created from the crafty courses could be donated to construction workers and labourers to wear during the chilly winter months.
Since then, the trio began arranging members from the social media group to teach different workshops in spaces provided to them in Juffair, Budaiya, Saar, Zinj, Mahooz, Abraj Al Lulu and Adliya.
Every year, they produce around 130 caps and scarves to distribute to different locations for migrant workers to use.
