The Heartfelt Community Upliftment Project

Heartfelt is a community upliftment project set up in South Africa. It employes local women from rural communities to create beautiful hand-sewn products made from felt. It also helps to fight HIV/AIDS & other socio-economic issues within the local community.

“Martha Letsoalo started the heartfelt project with Julie Hadley after her son Emanuel died in prison wrongly accused and sadly abused at the age of 25. His files to this day have never been found.

The heartfelt project is her story. It’s about who she is. It’s about her children. It’s about the lives of the women and families in her community. It’s about the sadness that happens on a daily basis in a little place called Makapanstad. And the big difference one small heart can make to the happiness of others.

Together, Martha and Julie started creating and designing the heartfelt products using traditional handcraft skills, felt and beads. Today they are sold within South Africa and the UK. There are now ten women employed by the heartfelt project. Each day they come to work full of pride and hope. Creating each heartfelt design out of love and strongly believing that they can make a difference – not only to their own lives but to the lives of the community in which they live.

Each heart sold by the heartfelt project helps to feed and clothe the ladies and their families. It also gives back to the community by donating a small portion to a local charity to help fight TB, HIV/AIDS and look after children and old aged men and woman within Makapanstad. Its aim is to heal the hearts of people who don’t have the opportunities we have on a daily basis. And to fill not only the ladies hearts but many others with hope.”

Meet the Ladies behind these beautiful felt pieces HERE.

Visit the site: http://www.theheartfeltproject.com/

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