10 February 2009
Hugh Douglas’s knitted garments are close to soldiers’ hearts – he produces the cloth netting for the Army and has also made the Army’s woollen underwear – but they’re also keeping children warm in some of the world’s poorest and coldest countries.
The tiny garments Hugh makes at his Christchurch factory, Weft Knitting, are manufactured and distributed free of charge, and are being worn by babies and toddlers in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
Using woollen off-cuts that would otherwise have been discarded, Weft Knitting produced hundreds of singlets which, in Afghanistan, were distributed throughout Bamyan by the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team.
Weft’s involvement with the New Zealand Defence Force doesn’t end there; the company also sponsors a widely distributed calendar which is produced each year by 3 Land Force Group’s Deployment Support Services. The calendar features NZDF personnel serving overseas, and includes images of Service personnel interacting with local people.
Hugh says he really enjoys working with Deployment Services Officer Carol Voyce and her team. “It’s great looking at the pics that come from all over the world, and choosing the best ones. All the photographs tell a story, and some are really heart-warming. They invariably reinforce the massive humanitarian support the NZDF provides to countries in need.”
Whoever takes what Hugh and the calendar design team consider the best photo receives a merino possum sweater from Weft’s range. This year’s winner is Gunner Terrence Bailey, now from Linton, who snapped the image of a severely- ill Afghani woman being carried in a blanket down a hill to a New Zealand PRT patrol.
The patrol came across the woman who was haemorrhaging after giving birth, and took her, her husband, and her new-born baby to hospital about three hours’ drive away over a mountainous pass.
Gunner Bailey gave up his seat in the back of the vehicle for the woman and her husband, and sat out the journey on the tray of the vehicle.
Hugh says as the founding owner of Weft Knitting Co he is an advocate for supporting manufacturing in New Zealand, and has always believed the local community has a responsibility to support the community both in New Zealand and in third world countries.
He says he enjoys helping people where he can. He is involved in the Canterbury Charity Hospital, and also with the 180 Degrees Trust, an organisation which helps youth in the community.
“It’s great to be able to give people a bit of a hand where you can.”