Shanghai Daily news

The response to a community knitting project jointly initiated by the Women's Union in Pudong New Area, the China Children and Teenagers' Fund and woolen-manufacturer Hengyuanxiang Company, has been warmly received by 100 local mothers out to make a difference.

All the woolen sweaters produced by the charity project were sent to more than 100 Special Olympics athletes, disabled children, orphans and kids from poor families earlier this week to help the youngsters combat the winter chill.

Since December 1, a group of local expats, retired workers, disabled women and those afflicted with cancer, have put their efforts into the project that involved heavy duty knitting and sewing work over a three-week period.

Mai Hefei, a Swedish housewife who preferred to go by her Chinese name, said sending children sweaters in her native country was a common activity for adults and children to do each year.

Mai said she had always enjoyed knitting for others. As a mother of two, she always knitted baby clothes for her children and relatives. This time around, her focus is to knit for those in need, in particular, for a 13-year-old local girl.

During the past three weeks, each day the Swede has gone to a neighbor's home to learn about knitting in various designs.

"I love to knit and to know that I'm doing it for something worthwhile is really nice," she said.

When District Special visited, the recent Shanghai transplant was busy  knitting and purling her way through rows that would eventually make a red woolen sweater bordered in gray and blue with a snowball pattern.

The Pudong New Area volunteers were unanimous in their consensus that they were really grateful to have the chance to do something constructive and tangible for the needy children.

"We felt that we could, through our network of volunteers and our long association with national guilds, all work together to help them," said Huang Zhiying, a retired worker who is a member of the knitting project. "I'm amazed at the generosity and enthusiasm of the knitters. You can see it in the way that everyone involved shares their talents."

Such enthusiasm was evident among the 10 active participants from the Pudong New Area Cancer Club. Once finding out about the project from a local newspaper, they immediately formed a group and joined the project soon after.

As they knit and purl, hands and needles move in quiet, rhythmic arcs, showing no signs of illness. However, all of them are sick and suffering from different kinds of cancer.

"There is a huge population of socially-minded people that need more care," said one of the "sick mothers." "We believe that the charity knitters could stitch up the city and we just wanted to spread as much of our love through positive action as possible."

In one week, the cancer group finished five woolen sweaters for the kids.

While the amount may not seem like much, the spirit behind the project far exceeded the figure.