Facing an ‘unexpected production issue’ which has resulted in a shortfall of 2,000 crochet sheep, Salthill based business, Wonky Woolins has announced it will be collaborating with ‘local refugees, migrants and other community members’ to help meet its production needs.
Describing the initiative as a ‘community collaboration to meet demand’, Wonky Woolins founder, Chloe Gardiner, says the organisation is turning a ‘challenge into an opportunity’.
“We are excited to turn this challenge into an opportunity for our community,” said Gardiner, adding, “By bringing together people from different backgrounds, this effort not only helps us meet our production goals but also allows us to work within our local community.”
Through its initiative working with marginalised groups, Wonky Woolins aims to, ‘provide temporary employment and skill-building opportunities for refugees, migrants and other community members’, ‘fostering a sense of community and support for new residents’ in the area, and to ‘highlight the valuable contributions that diverse community members can bring to local businesses’.
Production ethos
A multi-award winning children’s soft toy brand, Wonky Woolins was founded by young entrepreneur, Chloe Gardiner in 2018, when Gardiner was just 15 years old. Initially beginning life as a transition year mini-enterprise initiative started with ‘€50, some wool, and a crochet hook’, now six years later Wonky Woolins, has seen massive growth and expansion.
Despite being driven by an unforeseen shortfall, Gardiner’s solution to counter the problem with an initiative aimed at empowering marginalised groups is befitting for the company’s general production ethos.
While all the ‘woolins’ are ‘designed and finished in Galway’, through partnerships with social enterprises and ‘not-for-profit’ organisations in Morocco and Nepal, there are teams of women in both countries who have been working ‘ethically’ to help produce the soft toys. Priding itself on having provided the opportunity to ‘give a woman a fair wage, a safe place to work and upskilling’, the organisations partnering with Wonky Woolins all share a focus on ‘employing, supporting and educating women who are marginalised, jobless, or in domestic violence situations’. Through its work with such groups and additional donations given by the company, Wonky Woolins says that it ‘furthers the education, upskilling and legal literacy’ of the women who help to create the woolins.
With the support of Galway based groups, Wonky Woolins has just three weeks to complete the outstanding order of 2,000 crochet sheep, it take all hands on crochet hooks to achieve its goal.
