In the streets of Nigeria, Angola, and the Republic of Congo, helpless children are accused of witchcraft by their families and neighbors. These boys and girls are then beaten and tortured, only to be abandoned, if not killed. Once stigmatized by the label of witch or wizard, these children are even more vulnerable to child traffickers.

Becoming: a sacred gathering and the Chesapeake Pagan Community are working together on a six-month campaign to raise funds and knit toys of love, healing, and protection for these children. Funds will be donated to Stepping Stones Nigeria, a UK-based organization that sponsors a shelter and school run by Nigerian organization Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). The toys will be sent directly to the children.

We need your help to make a difference in these children’s lives.

If you are a knitter or crocheter in the NoVa, DC, Suburban MD, or Baltimore area, you can help by knitting bears and gathering pledged donations. Our initial kick-off meeting for this campaign is March 30, 2008, 1:30pm, in Beltsville, Maryland. If you cannot attend this meeting, you can still participate in the campaign.

If you are not a knitter, you can donate directly to this campaign via PayPal or check, and volunteer at some of our outreach events.

You can register as a knitter or donate to the campaign at http://charity.becomingdc.org.

For more information about this campaign or to keep up with our progress, check out the web site or contact Angela Roberts Reeder at angela@becomingdc.org.

To donate to my campaign:

More information about this issue:
Children are the targets of Nigerian witch-hunt

Video: Child “witches” in Africa

Photographs: The child “witches” of the Niger Delta

Please spread the word. Together the pagan community can make a huge difference in these children’s lives.

I have put together a sponsorship form and sent it to Stepping Stones Nigeria for review.  It included a picture by Robin Hammond at the UK Guardian/Observer, so I need to ask permission to use it.  Cross your fingers!

I am also asking a local group if it would be willing to act as financial agent for the project by depositing all donations in their bank account and sending one/two lump donations to Stepping Stones Nigeria.

Once I get those things in order, I need to write up some directions to help other knitters get involved without having to do all this foot work.  I want to make a handy package of resources that others can use easily.

Some months back, a good friend Hecate posted about personal responsibility.

How do you live as a woman of integrity in these times? Where’s the balance between private action and civil action? To what extent is it going to be OK with my ancestors if I show up in the Summerlands and say, well, hell, I was doing the best that I could, given how little impact one woman was likely to make in any event? I planted herbs and spread poems and was kind to everyone I encountered? I spent a long time earning that law degree and getting that job and why should I have had to give all that up just because other people were evil?

A witch takes responsibility. What is my responsibility in these times? It’s not that difficult to take responsibility. It’s more difficult to figure out what responsibility to take.

This, along with stories coming out about the “witch” children of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has me wanting to do something. I took the first steps this week– beginning to think about my intent in this blog and emailing the folks at Stepping Stones Nigeria.

I have gotten some supportive responses from friends here and elsewhere, and I received a wonderful email from Gary Foxcroft, the founder of Stepping Stones Nigeria, in which he wrote: Having read about your group [Becoming] and beliefs it is especially interesting for us to hear from members of different spiritual communities….Ultimately we believe in the power of intention and of serving humanity, which is what took us to Nigeria in the first place.

Rather than feeling helpless, I am beginning to feel hopeful. I am setting my personal goal of service: knitting 10 bears and raising $5000. That would be $500 per bear. I would need 25 people to pledge $20 per bear or 50 people to pledge $10 per bear. Of course, if someone could only pledge a few dollars per bear, or a set amount for just one bear, that would be okay too.

I’m still working out the details for myself, then I will post the information for other knitters to use to do the same.

I had an idea last night that I would like to get some feedback on.

I would like to organize a fundraising effort for Stepping Stones Nigeria and the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). These two groups that work directly with sheltering, feeding, and educating street children in Nigeria who have been accused of witchcraft and beaten, tortured, killed, and/or abandoned by their families and neighbors.

Child ‘witches’ in Africa
African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out
Children are targets of Nigerian witch-hunt

What I would like to do is call upon the knitters in the neo-Pagan community (starting locally and with my on-line circles) to knit stuffed bears and/or children’s clothes for the children. Each person doing the knitting would get other people to pledge to sponsor them at either $5, $10, or $20 per bear/item of clothing. The knitters would also be working a spell of love and healing into the hand-made items.

For example: I get five people to pledge $10 per bear that I knit, and then I make 5 bears. That’s a toy of love and healing for 5 kids, plus 5 sponsors times $10 times 5 bears equalling $250. If I can find 10 knitters to do the same thing, that would be 50 bears and $2500.

I have sent an email of inquiry to Stepping Stones Nigeria (which has a 1% overhead, so most of the money goes directly to the children’s shelter) about the logistics and legality of collecting the money centrally here and sending it in one lump sum to them. Obviously there would be logistics to work out as well.

So, what do you think? If you knit, sew, crochet, whatever, would you be willing to make some bears/items of clothing and get sponsors? If you don’t do hand-crafts, would you be willing to be a sponsor for something like this?

I know this is a band-aid compared to the poverty and health crises in Africa, but this issue has touched my heart and I can’t just do nothing. This is something I think I can do.

I keep reading the stories about children in the Congo and Nigeria who are abandoned, beaten, and killed after being accused of being witches. It breaks my heart every time — to the point where I am shaking. I finally found an organization that is specifically working to help these kids. I am going to donate, and I hope you will too.

Stepping Stones Nigeria