What do a high school sewing class, a hospital in Cameroon, and a Staff Supported Home in Chilliwack have in common?
A shared effort to reduce waste and help others. Each semester, students in the sewing elective at Abbotsford Traditional School create a variety of projects, leaving behind small fabric scraps too small to reuse. By year’s end, bins are full and the sewing teacher is left wondering what to do with them.
Around the same time, staff learned about a Staff Supported Home in Chilliwack involved in a humanitarian project supporting a hospital in Mbingo, Cameroon. The home was sewing baby blankets, diapers, and wound bandages for the hospital’s medical and surgical ward and Tracey (pictured) as front and centre.
One student project involved cotton flannel pajamas – the exact material required for the hospital bandages, which must be cut into small 10-centimetre squares. When staff realized the scraps were headed for the landfill, the connection was clear.
These handmade items support White Cross, an organization providing accessible medical care worldwide for more than 100 years, including at Mbingo hospital. What began as a simple waste problem became a meaningful partnership, connecting students, staff, and volunteers across three communities to make a difference.