Just like the woodwork section the sewing section is constantly busy. Shaida heads the sewing department of 7 ladies. Materials used are a combination of donations received by various organisations and also purchased materials from sales of previously made items.
Mostly the ladies make placemats, picture handbags, beadwork handbags and quilted blankets. The beadwork is fairly time consuming and turns a flat printed background into a 3 dimensional fairy tale. Being a craftsman I can appreciate the process that goes into such work. Suzette determines the extent of the beadwork. Craft is tricky that way, time is often the final determining factor on how detailed you want to get. Time determines pricing. I estimated that it would take me (unpractised in the beadwork arts) about 2 days to do the beadwork on one handbag.

The placemats are actually a sandwich of several layers of material, including a foam inner, which is then seam stitched inside out, turned the right way round and then finished off with an over-locker. The work is good, The ladies know what they are doing. They also occasionally make banners and are amenable to new opportunities or challenges.

I can say that to see people with disabilities working together in a supportive environment is a humbling experience for me and being involved, even if only on a peripheral level, has been a good grounding experience. You go ladies!
All the products from the sewing department are sold from the Rotary Stall in Templeman Square, across the road from the Public Library in the Centre of Knysna. Ronald, who mans the stall, will be at your assistance Monday to Friday.
Enquiries: Phone (044) 385-0145 or use the Contact form

It is a busy place. Edwin oversees, keeps his sharp eye on what’s happening and runs a tight ship. There’s a feeling of camaraderie that I find unusual in such a business, but no mistake there’s hard work going on. Nico and Francois are both blind. Francois from birth and Nico for 16 years now. On my first visit I happened to have some of the wooden toys I make with me and they both requested a hands on examination. So much of woodwork is actually by feel, especially finishing touches.

On further investigation I locate the sewing section, a number of ladies busy sewing on a number of machines. Its busy too. I failed to ask the right questions in my initial foray in the sewing department and was happily lead astray to investigate some computers that required attention. At least they are done now. My next visit will reveal the secrets of the sewing department. Stay tuned.

Contributed by Raoul the Owl, a humble and committed carpenter who makes and sells children’s wooden toys in the Garden Route South Africa

I greet, friendly, Jenny Hayward, who runs this incredible endeavour, and as I take her frozen hand in greeting, I am compelled to embrace her, as if that action could dispel the cold and the concern that is so clearly visible, as she accepts the empathy and gratefully smiles back at me.

She introduces me to Leticia, the admin lady, and shows me the miniature space where Duré Frankin, the social worker, will be applying her skills and training on behalf of the workers and their extended family.  The lady in the kitchen laughs at my question “Where’s the cake,” given the stove and oven that was donated to the centre.

The three knitting machines, a Pfaff, a Singer and a Pasap, covered with old curtains, patiently wait for someone to come and train the people who could convert the bundles of wool into garments and income, and my mind runs to another, retired, Jenny, who I will contact and motivate.

As I turn, the clever shopping bags, made from old newspaper, catch my eye, and I wonder is some gift shop in Knysna would buy them, and use them for the purchases made by tourists.

The carpenters, with Wally who has no legs, sitting in his wheelchair, happily continue to make and assemble, one meter high, wooden crosses.  These will be used, together with the chip board coffins the for people who get buried in pauper’s graves, by the undertaker who ordered them.

Abel, known also as Pelo or last born, is busy threading new cow hide strips into the holes of a “Riempie” stool.  This is his speciality and he does not really need much supervision from Edwin, the diminutive manager, who stands by, leaning on his crutches, as Abel artistically treads the strips of hide to form the new seat of the stool.

There are picture frames, duck boards, and other, as yet unfinished, items waiting for the hands that will convert them into usable works of art.  But the Iveco bus, that brings the disabled workers to the centre, is in George and in need of repair, so hands that could be working and supporting others, are sadly back in some equally cold shacks waiting for a miracle.

I take my leave of Jenny and feel the desperation as she recounts the lack of understanding and support that this endeavour has from Council.  The pathetic amount of money received as a grant from The Department of Social Affairs, and my mind races back to the remuneration figure of government employees.  In the car I formulate the appeal that I will make for free water and electricity, for the repair of the Iveco bus, the compassion of the residents of Knysna, and the manner in which all the challenges that this enterprise deals with, day to day, can and will be resolved.

Contributed by Peter Dijkstra the CEO of the recently formed Knysna Chambr of Commerce & Industry