BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
As an early childhood educator at Walden Day Care, 20-year-old Paula Cunningham knows all toddlers love their “blankie.”
So, when the young woman leaves home Monday for a two-month volunteer stint at the Home of Hope orphanage just outside Cape Town, South Africa, she is bringing along enough small, quilted blankets to give to 50 babies.
Even when she returns home, she plans on sending more blankets to the orphanage.
Cunningham is volunteering at the facility through an agency called AVIVA, which places international volunteers with non-profit organizations in South Africa.
The children can cuddle under their blankies at the orphanage, and they can bring them with them if they are adopted, she says.
“These blankets I’ve made for years. My family has always made them for gifts. I was looking at the wish list on the website, and one of the things is blankets. I thought I could make a blanket for everybody, and when they get adopted they can take the blanket with them,” she says.
“These guys (children at the day care) love their blankies, and the world pretty much comes to an end when they don’t have their blankies.”
Family, friends, co-workers and complete strangers have been helping Cunningham out by cutting squares and donating fabric so she can make more blankets. The woman says she wants to thank all those who helped with the project.
Each blanket has a label on the back that says “Especially for (child’s name) from Celeste, Alexandria and all your friends at Walden Day Care in Lively, ON, Canada.”
The orphanage cares for children who have been abused, neglected, abandoned, or have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, other illnesses or war, says Cunningham.
“I’ll be doing a lot of the same things I do here. Feedings, changings, playing with the kids,” she says. “I don’t really expect the kids to be much different than the ones here. Some of them will be a lot younger. Their situation is really sad. I see all these guys (children at the day care) every day, but they go home at the end of the day.”
The woman’s mother, Mary-Lou Coffey, is the executive director of Walden Day Care.
Cunningham grew up playing with other kids at the facility, and has been working there since she was 13. She graduated from Cambrian College’s early childhood educator program last year.
Coffey says she’s extremely proud of her daughter, although she’s a little nervous about her going overseas. “But she loves little kids, and it seemed like something she could do.”
