Afghanistan
This year, over
100 quilts have been sent to children in Afghanistan.
If you would like to help, please contact us. Please send a donation to help with shipping.
"Thank you Judith. We appreciate what you are doing to make such a personal
connection between the Afghan and American cultures especially between the
children. The artwork of the children is heart warming and says more than words
could -a strong message of peace and friendship is there and sewn into each
blanket. Thanks for keeping our students warm with the blankets your
organization sent.
Best
wishes,
Marsha
MacColl
Afghans4Tomorrow
http://www.afghans4tomorrow.com/
THE DAILY HERALD, COLUMBIA, TENNESSEE, Sunday, November 5. 2006
Silence
filled the room as Ms. Meeker read stories about quilts, fictional stories, the
children loved, of quilts being made. They had just finished drawing their
quilt blocks to make quilts themselves. However, before Ms. Meeker
would finish her story time, she opened her own book of quilt stories and
photos. Stories that were not fiction. One picture held the children spell
bound. it was a story of a nurse Kima Douglas, who took quilts to children
living off of the trash heaps of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was a story of children living
near an Aids Clinic. This child held his quilt tightly wrapped around
himself. The silence in the room was palpable. It was a story the
children would long remember, glad that their quilts would travel the world to
another child, and bring comfort to them.
Update:
Eleven quilts were created by students at McDowell. Quilts will be part of 50 quilts sent to Ghana and
children freed from slavery in
collaboration with:
www.freetheslaves.net
INDIA
Dalit students make quilts for More than Warmth at the SWAP TRUST orphanage, Coimbatore INDIA.
To help buy sewing machines for the woman's sewing center write info@morethanwarmth
Subject-attn: Prof. Rajan.
Thank you Mwana Bermudes and Nelda Villines for delivering quilts to Swaziland and Zambia for four years now. Your photographs
add tremendously to teaching children here about others around the world.
Girl Scouts in Georgia made a beautiful quilt that went to Iraq.
Thank you.
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Peace
does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace
means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue,
education, knowledge; and through humane ways.
~ His Holiness the Dalai
Lama
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear
Friends and Family,
Thank you
for your support. In gratitude, I reflect on five years of working with many students
of all ages and asking them to open their hearts. We have enjoyed the support of
hundreds of people around the world, taking quilts, making quilts, receiving
quilts, printing articles, and helping us put up exhibits. Many teachers have
welcomed me into their classroom. Many people have made quilts themselves
around the country, even the world.
As we
begin a new year, I remember making our first quilt squares five years ago. I was looking at the sign on my classroom wall, "Do Unto Others
As You Would Have Them
Do
Unto You"
"Thousands of people are
freezing in Afghanistan, after over 20 years of war. Do
you want to make them a quilt? "YES!" was
their overwhelming reply.
These first quilts were sent with Global
Exchange and Medea Benjamin with the help of Linda Speel, in Petaluma, California, director of Peaceroots Alliance www.peaceroots.org, and
opened a Friendship
Center in
Kabul University six weeks later. Our letters
were read to local children, and then the quilts were given away. We didn't know that we were More than Warmth,
then. We knew that the students were learning to open their hearts. We
learned that we were giving hope to others. We learned that students were learning to make a difference.
Since
then, over 900 quilts have been sent around the world from over 8000 students
of all ages. We have sent quilts to over 35 countries,
making many friends. These quilts travel around the world and into the
hearts and
hands od someone in need of hope and love. They are a gift from all of
us. They link hands and heal hearts. This would not have been
possible
without you.
Thank you.
Love,
Judith
Biondo Meeker
Founder
director
More than
Warmth
judith@morethanwarmth.org
--~~~~~~~~~~
" WE NEED TO LOVE AND NOT
HATE. WE NEED TO HELP AND NOT HURT."
-Gerard Equakun, age 5
Dear Friends,
We hope you like the quilt. All the pictures are home-made. We
hope you feel warmer with this.
Your
Friend,
Jackson
Dear Friends,
I hope you like the quilt as much as I liked making it.
Your
Friend,
Marissa K.
Dear Friend,
I hope that our quilt makes you feel loved. Even though I have never
met you,
I want you to be my pen pal. I 'm sure that at night you will sleep
soundly as a baby knowing that you are loved. I hope you love the
blanket.
Love,
Elizabeth
Thank you Angel quilters in Australia for sending quilts and baby clothes to
mothers and babies in Tibet.
******************************
Thank you Judith Dodge for your dedication, Jeanne Kahan for the web
site, and the Sew Delightful, Dickson quilters, whose motto is Quilting
without Borders, and who donated 17 quilts and many tops for the last shipment to Ghana.
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Tibet
Dear Judith,
We cannot thank you enough
for your gifts of Warmth.
We were so thrilled to give
these beautiful handmade
quilts
to the rural poor children.
The look on their faces
was priceless!
We
look forward to continue
the circle of giving.
With many blessings,
Arlene M. Samen
founder director
ONE H.E.A.R.T.
www.onehearttibet.org
Linda Speel, and granddaughter
Anwyn Joy Evans have
made numerous
quilt squares together. Here they are presenting a quilt to Global
Exchange delegate Sanaz Meshinpour going to an Iraqi refugee camp.
Linda has
sent dozens of quilts with
Global Exchange, Mid East Children's Alliance (MECA), and other groups based in California AND our first one's to Afghanistan.
Contact Linda
at: linda@peaceroots.org
Dear Linda,
Thank you so
much for contacting me about this. I would love to take some of your quilts on
our delegation. Actually we are meeting with a children's charity organization
and a school for Iraqi refugees, so both of those meetings will give us a
chance to donate your quilts to the school, or to individual families.
Best
Regards,
Sanaz
Sanaz Meshinpour
Middle east
Coordinator
Global Exchange.
Linda Hlady presents a quilt to Faiza Alaraji, in Santa
Rosa California. As Faiza
toured the US, telling
people about the war in Iraq, she told
Linda that the quilt gave her hope for her country.
Dear Linda,
My youngest son is in the
high school.
I will ask him take the quilt
to the school to let his friends see how beautiful is it.
Yes, it will stay as symbol
for peace between Iraqi and American people.
all my love
Faiza Alaraji
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