Handmade blankets welcome immigrants to U.S.

印刷用画面を開く

Posted

Category: (Self-Study) Human Interest

Switch to Watch View >

Storyline

Hide Storyline

A Massachusetts woman and her granddaughter use their hands to put the finishing touches to a colorful blanket they are making for immigrants coming to the United States.

They are in a group of men and women who are knitting and sewing blankets intended to make immigrants feel welcome in the country.

The woman then reads out loud a personal note that the immigrant will receive with a blanket, outlining their family’s history of migration and immigration.

The handmade blanket is one of dozens of artistic blankets that crafters have sewn, crocheted and knitted as gifts for refugees in the Vermont community.

It’s part of the national Welcome Blanket project, a crowd-sourced artistic action supporting refugees settling in the U.S.

Los Angeles activist Jayna Zweiman started Welcome Blanket in 2017 in opposition to Donald Trump’s candidacy speeches about building a wall between the United States and Mexico.

To date, thousands of blankets and notes have been created around the country for shows including in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Winooski, Vermont.

The blankets, accompanied with the personal notes from their creators, were then gifted to refugees at events, in welcome boxes, at their new housing or through charity groups.

The project is geared towards refugees — people forced to leave their home or country to escape war, persecution or natural disaster — including Ukrainians who escaped the Russian invasion of their home country.

But the blankets have also gone to immigrants.

In Vermont, Aisha Bitini, who is originally from Central Africa’s Democratic Republic of Congo, said she loves the blanket she chose — a soft, crocheted piece made up of large squares of gold, maroon, off-white and gray.

Kalyan Adhikari, who’s originally from Nepal, said the Vermont project was “such a kind and warm initiative.”

He said it makes refugees feel welcome and a little bit more like they’re home.

Zweiman said she hopes the blanket-making for refugees will become an American tradition.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

Script

Hide Script

[Patty Margolis and her granddaughter, Ada Goldstein, making a blanket for immigrants]

[Goldstein writing a welcome note for blanket recipient as her grandmother dictates the text]

Patty Margolis: “This is our note to the new immigrants that have come to Brookline. We’ve made a beautiful blanket for you, me and my granddaughter. ‘Welcome to Brookline. Our family came from Eastern Europe to avoid prejudice and to live freely for almost 80 years.’”

[Welcome Blankets on display, ready for immigrants to pick up]

Jayna Zweiman (interview): “Welcome Blanket is a large-scale art activism project where people across the country and the world are crafting welcome blankets – which are 40 inches by 40 inches, easy to care for and they hurt to give away because the makers love them so much. And they include notes about stories important to their families, about immigration, migration and relocation with words of welcome.”

[Welcome blankets and notes on display at a public exhibition]

Jayna Zweiman (interview): “These gifts are sent to art institutions and cultural places, and they’re shown together because it’s to welcome new refugees coming to the United States.”

[People gathered at a public library on a weekend to make welcome blankets for immigrants]

Hadassah Margolis: “And then we have about 30 … over 30 resettlement agencies across the country that we partner with. And once the exhibits are done and we box them up and we give them to those agencies and they gift them to their clients who are either immigrants or refugees or asylum seekers who are coming here to the United States.”

Davida Charpak (interview): “I think it’s it’s nice … something for them. You know, they could be coming with nothing on their backs. Just their backs, you know, just the clothes on their backs. I know my mother-in-law is an immigrant with my husband and my father-in-law, and they came with absolutely nothing, you know.”

[Marisa Mihich chatting with another woman when their group gathered at a public library to make welcome blankets for immigrants]

Marisa Mihich (interview): “I do it, in a way, for humanity.”

Anne Faber (interview): “And I try to design the blankets when I knit them with the thought of somebody basically covering themselves and feeling warm and that they’re getting somebody holding them and giving them a hug and keeping them warm.”

[Welcome blankets on display ahead of distribution to immigrants]

Aisha Bitini (interview): “Oh, my God. I love it. They feel so special and, you know, this was one of our projects and I’m so blessed to have one of them.”

[Nepalese immigrants checking out welcome blankets at a handout event]

Kalyan Adhikari (interview): “These kinds of things is a good initiative and which makes them feel welcome and feels like home a little bit closer than before.”

[Adhikari hands over a welcome blanket to a fellow Nepalese immigrant]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

Related Lesson: Handmade blankets welcome immigrants to U.S.