ANYA - To Russia With Love

I recently came across this little gem on Twitter. To Russia with Love, a charity that works with orphaned and abandoned children across Russia, has teamed up with Brown Bag Films, one of my favourite Irish animation companies, (makers of Octonauts, The Secret of Kells and Give up Yer Ole Sins).

Their new initiative, ANYA, is a four minute animation charting 20 years in the life of a Russian orphan. 

"Originally approached to produce a short advert to highlight the work we do with abandoned and orphaned children in Russia, the Dublin based studio decided a short film would work much better.

Writer/director Damien O’Connor explains ‘the idea was simple, we make a piece of entertainment and if people like it, they show their gratitude by donating money directly to To Russia With Love. In a way it’s ‘visual busking’, we’re used to charity singles and calendars, so we applied the same approach to an animated film instead".

If you would like to donate to the charity, simply text HUG to 50300 to donate €4 to the charity.

So, where is the textile connection? There has to be one! 

I read a blog post by Brown Bag Films about how they got 53 Pasha bears sent from the USA. Pascha is the teddy bear in the animation. Read the blog post, its a wonderful story about how Allison Hoffman, an amigurumi maker in the US, saw the animation, contacted Brown Bags and asked if she could make the bears. (Read her blog entry). Amigurumi is a Japanese crochet techniques for crocheting teddy dears and dolls

Allison has written up a lovely crocheted pattern for Pascha The Bear. To Russia With Love is now asking for people to make the bears, for two reasons. Firstly they could be ambassador bears, take pictures of the bears, put in a high profile locations, in waiting rooms, workplaces, etc with information about the charity. Or you could take pictures of Pascha, and share the information on social media. All this will help in the campaign to raise funds for the children of Russia. 

Secondly, To Russia with Love are asking for people to make the bears, to give to each of the children in Russia. They are all very familiar with the animation, and a Pascha each of their own, would be fantastic.

For more information contact To Russia with Love 

Seaview House, 

192 Clontarf Road, 

Clontarf, 

Dublin 3, 

Ireland

Tel:  +353 1 8532919

       00353 1 8532920

Email: info@torussiawithlove.ie

http://www.torussiawithlove.ie/