Snow Cabin Goods: Rebuilding Lives in the Former Yugoslavia
Bosnia women still haven't completely recovered from their country's devastating civil war, but Snow Cabin Goods is helping then stitch their lives back together.
If there's anything that charity knitting proves, it's that even the small things can make a real difference in the life of a person who's facing hardships and stress. But what about the survivors of a civil war? Can a little knitting help them?
Snow Cabin Goods has proven that it can. Not only does their Bosnian knitting program provide therapy for the women affected by the Bosnian civil war, it also provides much needed work and technical skills that will help those women, and their families, in the future.
THERAPY AMID CHAOS
Kathleen Mitchell founded Massachusetts-based Snow Cabin Goods in 1996, shortly after realizing that she always started out with a good sweater when planning her daily outfit. In its first few years, the business featured knitted items from Scotland.
But when Kathleen took a detour into Sarajevo while on her honeymoon in 1998, what she discovered shocked her. A quarter of a million people had perished in the civil war that ravished the country from 1992-1995, and even three years later the country and its people were still shell-shocked.
Women who had been sophisticated professionals before the war were struggling to hold their lives and their families together in what still amounted to a war zone.
When Karen learned that some Bosnian women were knitting as a form of therapy, she searched until she found a nongovernmental group that was working with therapy knitters, and struck a deal with them. Soon, more than 100 Bosnian women were knitting goods for export to America.
QUIET COLLABORATION
Although Snow Cabin Goods still sells its popular Great Scots collection, they also highlight an attractive variety of sweaters knitted by their friends in Bosnia. The Bosnian ladies knit their wares from merino wool, angora, and soft boucle.
In return for their knitting, the ladies in the Bosnian knitting circle get productive work, a living wage, computer training, and English-language tutoring. The also get to retain their dignity in the face of chaos. Despite the differences that once tore their country apart, the knitting group includes women of Muslim, Bosnian, and Serbia ethnicity.
LET'S HELP OUT
Unlike most of the charities I feature here, you don't have to get those needles clacking to help the Bosnian ladies who knit for Snow Cabin Goods! Just buy one of their sweaters to help out. You can find out more by going to the Snow Cabin Goods website.
You can, however, still contribute directly to a good cause in the name of Snow Cabin Goods, especially if you've got some excess yarn or buttons. For more information, send an email to goodcauses@snowcabingoods.com.
