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Zimbabwe doesn’t exactly get a lot of good press at the moment. The country is plagued by unprecedented and unique poverty, even though most Zimbabweans are technically millionaires!
One US dollar is worth something like $250 million Zimbabwean, but with the average schoolteacher's salary about $400 million, even the basics are out of reach. A bag of potatoes cost $90 million in the first week of March 2008; a couple of weeks later, it was $160 million, thanks to an inflation rate that's jetting off into space. In 2006, for instance, toilet paper cost $417. A sheet! A whole roll cost $145,750. Back then, inflation was a mere 1000 per cent a year. By May 2008, it was something like 165,000 per cent, forcing nine in ten Zimbabweans under the poverty line.
It’s easy to forget the ordinary people struggling to live ordinary lives behind all the extraordinary doom & gloom in Zimbabwe. Which is why the success of Knit For Life in alleviating poverty is so extraordinary, and so inspiring.
Born in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, the sisters have a very personal connection to the situation there, and the idea behind Knit For Life was to share something of their privileged life in Australia with their less fortunate countrymen and women. A partnership between the sisters’ Australian knitwear label Grasshoppers and The Jesa Project co-operative of knitters – named for Zimbabwe’s Jesa bird, which ‘knits’ its nest – Knit For Life has so far provided employment to over 200 women in South East Zimbabwe. Not bad, in just nine or ten months.
Jacquie and Mally started Grasshoppers in 2001, making hand knitted items for babies and children in 100% natural cotton. Today, The Jesa Project, via Knit For Life, is the sole provider of all Grasshoppers’ products, which are sold at select up-market children's boutiques in Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand. The company has also recently signed a contract to begin knitting exclusively for one of Australia's leading baby products brands.
A member of the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand, Grasshoppers directs its profits back into Knit For Life, for future growth and development – although the program has helped more than 200 women so far, there are many more women “desperate” to get involved.
“Knit For Life,” Mally tells Living Creatively, “is the story about the women and their determination, against all odds, to earn a sustainable living and help feed themselves, their families and their communities through hand knitting in cotton for the export market. Despite food shortages, petrol shortages, electricity cuts and no running water, the women have proved their resilience over and over with only one thing in mind: to have continuous work and produce high quality, beautifully created knitwear, and in the process feed and clothe their families and maintain their dignity.”
Secondly, success derives from quality of the product. “We found a local manager who has helped to train the women to knit a range of different products for the Australian market, observing stock control of yarn, strict quality assurance, packaging and labelling, and export logistics,” Mally says. “They have proved themselves to be efficient and dedicated producers and able to manage larger quantities for export.”
Although she established the program, and regularly communicates with the participants via phone and email, Mally is yet to meet any of The Jesa Project women in person. “My plan was to visit this year,” she says, “but with the situation as it is at the moment, plans have been put on hold.”
Despite this, Knit For Life is purling steadily ahead. In 2007, the initiative placed 26th out of 3000 entries in an international competition for businesses that work to alleviate poverty in developing nations. In May 2008, it was selected a finalist in the 2008 Reed Gift Awards, Most Socially Responsible Category. And as word gets out, it can only grow.
By Melanie Sheridan
Knit For Life is currently seeking support from interested donors, partners, investors or sponsors. For more information, visit knitforlife.com.au |
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Launched in September 2007, 
The program’s success is two-pronged: firstly, it provides Zimbabwean women otherwise rare employment opportunities and a sense of pride and self-worth. Mally recounts the story of one woman who “continued knitting throughout her labour, as she had so much pride in her work she was determined to complete the garment before being rushed to hospital to give birth to her baby an hour later!”