Bear in mind

Loved by both young and old, male or female, teddy bears are among the most wonderful gifts friends and family can give to each other. And it was bearing that in mind that friends George and Jon set up TeddyThotz ‘n’ OneKind.

Besides the popular hand-stitched bears, the two-year-old social enterprise sells a wide range of products such as handmade mugs, traditional patchwork blankets, bags, pouches and many other products. Most of the products are made by beneficiaries themselves – mostly the elderly and people from rural parts of the world – and as much as 90% of the proceeds from the sales of these products goes back to the beneficiaries.

“Similar interests, and the fact that we were both from very poor families, made us decide to join forces to start a venture with a dual mission – to promote creative merchandise and at the same time to make a better world,” said George.

Explaining the vision for his pet project, the elderly’s enterprise for TeddyThotz ‘n’ OneKind, Jon added: “We hope to grow this into a nationwide network of elderly talents where people can order traditional patchwork blankets, table coasters and floormats that support the livelihood of these elderly at risk.”

Patchwork Passion

Old Madam Ong is in her 80’s. She rests in a wheelchair with her right arm severely impaired due to a stroke, and yet by the little window of her one-room flat, she produces beautiful traditional patchwork blankets made up of thousands of little triangular bits of cloth.

In the sunlight by her window where her trusty old sewing machine lies, she sits patiently cutting various old fabrics into neat patterned triangles. She then sews the numerous pieces of triangles together one by one to form square blocks. That is, before they are joined together to finally form a single patchwork blanket.

A 5×5 feet blanket alone would require some 1,300 small triangular pieces of fabric. Each of them neatly cut and then sewn together with Madam Ong’s great patience and perseverance.

Similarly, each hand-crocheted teddy bear is stitch by stitch sewn by plantation workers and rice farmers living from rural Thailand to supplement their income during off seasons and at times that they are not out in the fields. Among them are Noy and Nid who may be handicapped but nonetheless the best – in both speed and skill – crocheters in their village in Thailand.

“These are examples of how people in disadvantaged circumstances can be empowered with a skill, and we’re heartened to be able to support them by generating orders for them since our inception,” said Jon.

Baring their souls

George added: “We believe that every little bit counts, hence we have been doing what we can within our means to make a difference from day one”.

In the first year of the business, George and Jon shared their joy with 30 elderly with packets of Quarker Oats during Christmas. This year, they put a smile on the faces of about 400 elderly with a gift for each of them. They have also made donations from their sales to organisations like Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore (MINDS) and Action for Aids (AFA).

So far, the duo has some other social enterprise projects in the pipeline such as fulfilling George’s dream of running a “teh tarik” corner that provides free coffee and tea as well as a social space for the elderly and the poor in conjunction with their retail business.

“But the business environment is tough and we need to ensure we don’t over-extend ourselves. Hence we prefer to grow organically and nurture our creative and social enterprises in incremental steps for now,” said George.

For more information, check out http://www.teddythotz.com/ or email teddythotz@singnet.com.sg. Visit them at the PaTH Market at VivoCity every first and last weekend of the month.

Tags: crafts, Elderly, Teddy Bears

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Feature Articles, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.