Operation Doll Knit

This volunteer program began with the desires of one person to make a difference with the skills she had.  Joan Blatt heard Dr. Brooks speak a few years ago about his work in Malawi.  She knew she wanted to help in her own way to support what he was doing.  Years later there have been almost 6,000 comfort dolls knitted by volunteers in Canada for the children of Malawi because of her vision.

The original group of knitters are still going strong in Calgary, meeting at South Calgary Community Church every Tuesday at 10am.  The group is made up of people from a variety of churches who have the common interest of knitting and the heart of wanting to help.

More recently a new group based in Trochu has started to knit for the children too, they also meet regularly to make the dolls and socialise.

The dolls, when completed, are shipped out to Malawi to our clinics.  Once there, they are distributed to our young patients when they visit our clinics and given to babies born in our maternity units.

There is a never ending demand for the dolls in Malawi – we have more than 60 babies a month being born in our clinics and can see up to 150 children under five years old per day in our clinics.  For some children it is the only toy they will ever have, something to be cherished.  We always need more dolls.

If you would like to help our mission in Malawi by knitting dolls, please download our pattern below.  In the meantime, we love our Operation Doll Knit teams and very much appreciate all their volunteer time and passion that goes into their work - for children they will most likely never meet.