Knitted with Love for Ethiopian Newborns
Join us in knitting woollen baby hats for newborns. Your handmade creations will offer warmth and comfort to babies born in rural areas where cold nights are common and resources are scarce.
A warm hat can be lifesaving for a vulnerable newborn. And in communities where women traditionally birth at home without medical care, gifting a baby hat encourages mothers to give birth safely with a Hamlin midwife.
For many of these babies, this will be their only piece of clothing — an essential item that provides warmth and symbolises the love and care from people like you, thousands of miles away.
How to Get Involved:
Materials: Please use pure wool if possible, preferably in bright and varied colours. Ethiopians love vibrant hues, so this is a great opportunity to use up leftover yarn.
Why Wool: Wool is ideal due to its natural insulating properties, which help regulate temperature and keep babies warm during the cold nights that are common in the high altitude areas of rural Ethiopia. It’s also breathable, allowing moisture to evaporate while retaining warmth. And durable, ensuring that the hats will last and can be passed down to subsequent babies.
Pattern: Any simple baby hat pattern will be gratefully received, although we recommend the one outlined here as it features a ribbed and stretchy band that can be rolled up to double the warmth for a newborn and rolled down as the baby grows. The approximate measurements suitable for a newborn are 12cm wide, by 17cm high (including a 5cm band).
Sending Your Hats: Please package your hats and deliver or post them to to our office, including your name and contact details so we can thank you for your generous contribution.
Hamlin Fistula NZ
C/- Oxford Terrace Baptist Church Office
288 Oxford Terrace, Christchurch 8011
Every hat you knit makes a significant difference. This small act of kindness can save two lives, mum and baby, and bring warmth, love and hope to a family in Ethiopia. Thank you for helping these precious little ones start their lives wrapped in warmth and care.
If you would like to make even more impact, a $35 donation provides pregnancy, birth and antenatal care for one mother and baby.
Hats for Hamlin will an ongoing project with no cut-off time for donations. Approximately 35,000 babies are born each year with the help of a Hamlin midwife across our 92 supported midwifery clinics. As we continue to train and place more midwives across rural Ethiopia, this number is set to increase — so a steady supply of hats will be essential.
Not a knitter but would like to support this initiative?
We would gratefully accept donations of wool that can be passed onto knitting groups to be crafted into hats, or monetary donations towards the freight costs.
Thank you for your support!
