Trauma Teddies
23/04/2009
Did you know that the fifth object of Mothers' Union is to help those whose family life has met with adversity?
MU members around the world take this very seriously and spend a great deal of time, effort and money to help those in need.
One of the particular projects in this country is making 'trauma' or 'comfort' teddies. These are small knitted teddy bears that we give to the emergency services - police, fire and ambulance -to use in the course of their work. Where a child is in distress, as, for example, in an accident, house fire, or death of a loved one, the officers on the spot can give him or her a small toy to comfort them. It may seem a small gesture, but it can help a little in the immediate stages of an emergency, and in the following days. The teddies are also used in our prison work, to give to the children of prisoners at the visitors' centres, where they can be a useful first topic of conversatibn to ease the difficulties in communication with the separated parent.
At the beginning of this year, our overseas treasurer, Susan Mason, discovered a new use for the toys. In conversation with a neighbour, a retired army officer, it became clear that they could be used by our armed forces, particularly those serving in lraq and Afghanistan, in their efforts to establish better relations with local people. This would have the twofold result of helping the local families, living in violent circumstances, and the service personnel and their families -the former by giving them a humanitarian task in the midst oftheir daily military duties, and their families by giving them the assurance that at least one of their loved ones' activities will not involve them in danger.
To this end, an appeal was made in mid January to Durham diocese MU members, and when the teddies were sent, via the forces, in mid March, they numbered nearly 3000. The photograph (left) shows members of St Paul’s, Spennymoor Mothers' Union with some of their branch's knitted teddies (left to right) Pauline Storey, Jane Oxenham (St Paul’s MU Branch Leader)and Brenda Crooks.
Half of the knitted teddies from the Diocese will go to lraq, where they will be distributed to a school and orphanage, and the rest will belsent to Afghanistan. Readers will be interested to learn that one of the most recent MU branches is in Baghdad and has a membership of many hundreds.
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