Love Changes Everything

 From the Desk of Gretchen Ginnerty, President of The Love Quilt Project

On a trip to South Africa in 2011 I volunteered to work with children living in foster homes within the townships and saw a level of poverty and inequity I had never seen before. This awakened something within me that wanted to do something to help. These children needed financial and emotional support to have a chance at becoming successful adults. In 2012 I founded a charity called The Love Quilt Project that would provide exactly these two things.

South African children and their foster mother receiving Love Quilts

 The two primary goals of the Love Quilt Project are to provide emotional support through the gift of a Love Quilt to orphaned and vulnerable South African and American children, many of them affected by HIV/AIDS, and to provide access to quality education and support for each South African child who receives a quilt.

The educational goal of The Love Quilt Project is to provide vulnerable South African children access to a better education, giving them the best shot at living a prosperous life. We aim to break the cycle of poverty that continues to spin due to the inequities left over from both the apartheid system and the HIV/AIDS crisis, leaving children as the most impacted. The Love Quilt Project partners with established organizations within the United States and South Africa building relationships that help to improve the lives of these vulnerable children.

Access to a quality education continues to be a problem with which South Africa struggles. The reality is that poorer citizens lack the same access to educational spaces and services. Plus, South Africa still experiences one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world, which has resulted in millions of children orphaned or in foster care. These children don’t have the financial support needed to access quality schools. This past year, Covid-19 has further exposed the disparity of the educational system in South Africa and a caste system that discriminates against those growing up in poverty, leaving even more children in need of a helping hand.

For those orphans and foster children who live in poorer township communities, South Africa does provide access to free schools. These free schools were built under apartheid for black children in rural and urban areas and have chronic infrastructure issues. Many lack access to water, proper sanitation, teaching resources, and have overcrowded classrooms that make it difficult to learn. Covid-19 further aggravated these difficulties for these vulnerable children who did not have the same access to the internet, computers, electricity, and online learning which was required during the lockdown.

The consequence of this current economic division is that the vulnerable children living in the townships are left behind. Unfortunately, they will either drop out of school early or will not be prepared to go far enough with their education to give them a chance at a more successful life. Without access to quality schools, their ability to prosper as functioning adults is much lower.

The Love Quilt Project is focusing on raising the funds necessary to provide improved access to a quality education for many of these vulnerable South African children who have been orphaned or living in foster care homes. Transportation, supplies, uniforms, tutors, internet access and computers, skill training, all factor into the equation that will better the chances for these children to have the ability to obtain a higher education.

The gift of a Love Quilt begins in a classroom with students learning about the vulnerable and orphaned children in South Africa, many of who desperately need love and support. The students learn how important it is to be tolerant, compassionate, and kind. After the lesson the students are asked to create a special message using fabric markers on a special fabric square which will ultimately be stitched into a Love Quilt by a quilter volunteer and given to a South African child in need. In a spirit of reciprocity, the children in South Africa who receive a Love Quilt are also given this same lesson and asked to create messages to American children who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Learning through art and becoming an active participant gives the students an opportunity to make a connection to a bigger world where vulnerable children need their help.

Teaching with art is a powerful tool that can open a child’s creative mind. The Love Quilt project believes that teaching children through creative expression can foster healing and explore self-expression. Art, either creating it or viewing it, can help children explore their emotions, develop self-awareness, cope with stress, boost self-esteem, and develop coping skills.

Not all these results are guaranteed but they can become part of the experience as American children hear the stories of vulnerable children in South Africa and South African children learn about vulnerable children in America and then are asked to do something about it. Not only does the child who receives the art benefit from the healing powers of love and art expression but also the child who creates it.

I created the Love Quilt Project to make a difference in an American or South African child’s life. Along with The Love Quilt board and our team of volunteers we have been able to help thousands of vulnerable American and South African children. Giving a Love Quilt to these children, provides the warmth, love, and emotional support they may desperately need. And by funding access to a quality education for each South African child who receives a Love Quilt, The Love Quilt Project helps to open the door that allows them to prosper and build a better future.