Elephants Making a Difference

We receive fabulous stories on a regular basis from people who have made our 4KT Elephants and gifted them to friends and loved ones.

Those who make elephants for us to donate to local children's charities can also feel that they are making a difference now that the first collection of elephants have been recently delivered to Tedz 4 Kidz!

Here's the wonderful letter we received in response:

Thank you so much for the hard work that went into getting these elephants made.  It is appreciated by myself and the wider 4thekidz team. 

4thekidz have been supply trauma packs for the last 7 years to different areas around the country – Southland Tedz have been supplying the packs to Oamaru, Central and Southland for the last 5 years. 

These packs were predominantly designed to be given to children after they had been through specialist interviews (forensic), which we have now expanded, to cover all forms of trauma that a child may have been through, including sexual abuse, murdered family members, suicides, accidents, house fires, floods etc.  Most recently [aside from the family harm units] as a collective 4thekidz supplied 500 packs to help the Nelson team, when the fires happened in Pidgeon Valley and sent the same amount to help the Christchurch team with the attacks that happened in March.  

Our packs have been psychologically designed, to help the child, start to heal from whatever trauma they have been through.  Each item in the pack has a purpose:

• A soft toy to cry into, to cuddle or provide comfort.  
  
• A blanket to wrap around their shoulders, to hide under or to wipe away their tears. 
  
• A torch, because often the dark is a scary place for a child, where bad things can happen to them, and especially because they are possibly now in an unfamiliar environment.   
  
• Colouring items gives our younger children the opportunity to express their feelings through colour  
  
• A notebook for our older children, allows them to write, draw or scribble any emotions they are going through at the time.
  

Research shows that when a child can attach to an object the healing process begins much quicker.  By making and donating these amazing elephants, you are helping a child who has been through significant trauma, smile again and start the healing process.  Recently we received an email thanking us for supplying packs when tornado’s ripped through Taranaki – a year or so later, the children are still carrying their soft toys and blankets wherever they go.

We can’t make this project happen without the amazing support we receive from our local communities, so for this we thank you and everyone who has participated.  Without you all, there is no 4thekidz.  We are always humbled and extremely grateful with any support we receive.

Thank you once again and kind regards to everyone

We will be continuing to run workshops, and encouraging home sewists, to keep the pachyderms coming, as we head towards our goal of four thousand! It is heart warming to think of all the homes and hearts these will help to brighten.