She adds,
“I make hats on repeat! For every shop sale, a hat is given to someone in need. Right now my focus is on hats for Syrian refugees.”
In fact, she has started the @knitforsyria account and hashtag on Instagram. She is also 1/2 of the team @makegiverepeat where people can share “projects made with love for those in need”. She shares on the Make Give Repeat website,
“I love to make hats because hats are simple — they take just one skein of yarn, can be carried with you wherever you go, and don’t need any special measurements. Most people’s heads fall under one of three or four sizes (baby, child, smaller adult, larger adult) so you can be fairly certain the hat you’ve made will fit one of these four sizes of person depending on the number of stitches on your needle.
Hats can do quite a bit to keep a person warm. Little babies have a hard time regulating their temperature, so a hat can mean the difference between health and sickness. For folks living on the street, a hat can help stave off sickness in the coldest of temperatures. Naval ships run cold (something to do with all the metal …) so a hat can help keep soldiers warm while on and off duty.”
She chose to participate in the Mandalas for Marinke project, writing:
In Memory of Wink
… because life is so amazing for so many, but so hard for some …
Since Robyn is concerned about Syrian refugees, I wanted to share some information about depression and mental health issues among this population. For those who aren’t familiar with the situation, civil war broke out in Syria in 2011 and since then millions of refugees have fled to other countries. They experience a wide variety of stressors including worrying about family members they’ve been separated from, witnessing or being victims of interpersonal violence inside of refugee camps and elsewhere, and underage arranged marriages for girls. This leads to PTSD and depression among people of all ages, which children particularly at risk for immediate and long term mental health consequences. Many people are fighting for improved mental health services and trauma response in the refugee camps but additional work needs to be done in this area.
This post is part of the Mandalas for Marinke remembrance project.