“Working for Love Welcomes helps me take care of myself and my family. I can meet the needs of my children. This is the most important thing to me.”
This Mother’s Day, Love Welcomes is celebrating and paying homage to the women in our team and their stories of resilience, hope and motherhood. According to the UNHCR, eighty percent of all refugees are women or children. Many of the Love Welcomes team are mothers, mothers who knew that however difficult, leaving their homes with their children meant survival. Love Welcomes believe in a loving welcome for every mother and child in the camp. As one team member shared having fled the Syrian war:
“Our grandparents were weavers back in Syria so I love this work. Before Love Welcomes...everyday was the same routine in the camp, but now life has changed both for me and my daughters.”
For the Mums in our lives, a loving welcome remains a challenge for so many as we continue to socially distance through this pandemic. This season we want to send not only gifts of love but also messages of inspiration and hopes to lift the spirits. So, now more than ever we share the message which is at the heart of our work, it is what we say to every woman on our team: Remember, You Are Loved. These four little words have the power to heal and we all need to hear these words sometimes, don’t we? We love sharing this loving on our hand embroidered hoop.
Every Love Welcomes gift comes with a powerful message and this concept is the inspiration behind our range of embroidered hoops and signature welcome mats. Each piece is hand-stitched and woven by refugee mothers and daughters out of strips of life vest material and upcycled blanket fabric. They wanted to share these messages of love and hope with you, our supporters across the world, and one mother added:
“With Love Welcomes my confidence has increased as I have learned new skills, for example weaving. I’m more hopeful and optimistic about the future now that I am supporting my children.”
Refugee mothers want the same as all mothers for their children, a safe home and supportive environment. Love Welcomes helps them provide this by supporting their transition from the refugee camp to host society. Skills learning is critical in this process, and weaving is one of the key skills. Weaving is a therapeutic process helping each woman move forward from the trauma they have suffered. As their skills and confidence increase in weaving so do the range of products produced. Love Welcomes’ team are now producing cashmere wools scarves, a warming gift to grab year round. Stylish with fringed ends, every sale directly towards transportation and medical access for refugees helping them take the next step on their journey.
So this Mother’s Day, remind a mother in your life that they are loved with a gift by Love Welcomes and help support refugee mothers stitch their lives back together too. A gift that goes beyond Mother’s Day, a gift that helps heal the makers and inspire the receiver through a loving welcome.
