JANINE WELLS and friends are busy working away, making dolls to send to Africa.

They’re part of the Uthando Project, an Australia-wide network making dolls for children of KwaZulu-Natal, a province of South Africa.

Ms Wells, a retired teacher, has been making dolls about five years. They each take five or six hours to put together, and she’s made more than a hundred. The dolls have a number of uses but the project started to try to comfort children who’d lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS.

• Janine Wells and Margaret Boulger are gearing up to make 70 dolls for Africa. Photo by Matthew Dwyer

“They don’t have anything, these children,” Ms Wells says, and the dolls provide a silent friend to grieving children.

They’re also used by caregivers as a prop to discuss difficult topics. Some children use the dolls to act out funerals or other sad scenes, and they’re helpful for sexual health education.

The Uthando project has a fundraising exhibition at Kidogo Arthouse in Fremantle July 14 to 19, and if you want to get knitting yourself, head to uthandoproject.org to find a local group.

by DAVID BELL