A recent initiative to rekindle hope and celebration in our beautiful community of Barrydale, South Africa, has resulted in 944 prayer flags being made by the children of our disadvantaged community along with residents and local artists alike.

In combination with this uplifting flag installation, the team at Net vir Pret worked with the University of the Western Cape and their Centre for Humanities Research to bring the world, Reboot Eden: Celebrating Ten Years of Puppetry in Barrydale.

The prayer flag committee first met early August of this year to brainstorm a way to bring the community together in a creative and positive way, and this is what transpired…

Article below published by News62 by journalist, Mickey Mentz.

Barrydale streets to be decorated with 944 Prayer Flags of Hope

Photo courtesy of Mickey Mentz, News62

They set out to create something positive, something artistic, something creative, something that the whole community could be involved in and as a result of an astounding group effort, 944 Prayer Flags of Hope will line the streets of Barrydale from 14 to 19 December.

The children and interns of charity orginisation Net vir Pret painted most of the flags under the guidance of their teacher, Cherie Dirksen, while the rest of the contributions came from local artists, businesses and villagers.

In fact, to illustrate just how village-focused this initiative became, we can today reveal that radio presenter turned axe-man Rueben “the screwman” Hart serves on the hanging committee.

Earlier this year Rueben played his axe in the Dung Beetle and Country Pumpkin restaurants and he is now part of the flag hanging committee that will in charge of decorating the Karoo Art Hotel and other places of interest.

The project is the brainchild of the prime genial Mez Karoo Kitchen owner Michelle Berry who, during the early days of lockdown, rediscovered a box of prayer flags she had made for a Barrydale in Bloom celebration of years gone by.

She instinctively knew it would be of great value and relevance as the world entered a strange space in time.

With her foresight a group of about 40 people united and focused their energy on sending out a message of optimism during the most uncertain winter in human history.

“A prayer flag has a positive connotation and during this time we thought it would be appropriate to do something that brings hope and reminds of the dreams we have,” said Michelle.

She was quick to point out that everyone she had approached to help with this idea had jumped at the chance to contribute. One of the first persons was Cherie and subsequently her under privileged art students became involved.

From sometimes unsung heroes at Net vir Pret like Herman Witbooi and Clarisa Esau to seaming sensations Richard Panaino and Katye Lovegrove, the willingness to contribute was overwhelming.

Businesses support worthy cause: Picture: Cherie Dirksen

Even the local poetry society pitched in and their work will form part of the 10 flags from the town’s artists that will be on display at the Karoo Art Hotel in what is a very fitting reminder that the Barrydale Art Meander will also be in full swing during this time.

“It was a real community effort and we owe a lot of gratitude for a lot of people,” Michelle added.

She highlighted that a donation of table runner material by Arran Bastable of Barrydale Hand Weavers was very generous indeed and with the contribution from Colour Screen Fabric Paint in Cape Town they were all set for action.

As always, Ant Chidrawi of The Hub also contributed in his unique way by providing stencil work at no charge.

Flags of Remembrance

He will be missed. Gari Crawford. Picture: Facebook

Just a few weeks prior to the finalisation for the Prayer Flags of Hope, Net vir Pret and the community of Barrydale suffered a huge loss when beloved and respected music teacher Gari Crawford passed away following a stroke.

Gari had just completed a compilation of 10-years of music Net vir Pret created as part of their annual Puppet Parade.

“There was a general consensus that we wanted this project to be about hope and celebration of last 10 years of Net vir Pret, but we did not expect this sad setback,” Cherie explained.

Cherie made it her task to ensure that that flags representing the love that exists for the mentor Gari were created and that in doing so, the music maestro’s life would be celebrated.

She fought off her tears when she explained just how moving this final tribute to a much loved turned out to be.

A final tribute to the inspirational Gari Crawford. Picture: Cherie Dirksen

Flags can become part of annual event(s)

The 944 Prayer Flags of Hope that were created will be sold in bundles of 20 from the Magpie Art Gallery on December 19 and should any of these reasonably priced items go unsold, they will be utilised for 2021 celebrations.

All proceeds wil go to Net vir Pret.

Michelle noted that the flags will not be expensive and that Cherie might as well brace herself for the pressure related to producing such great volumes of excellence.

Cherie unofficially confirmed that they would double the number of hand crafted flags next year and fully supported the idea of creating these decorative gems annually.

“I was taken aback with Michelle’s idea and I immediately thought this could become a yearly event.”

Article by Mickey Mentz and published on News62

Now wouldn’t it be great if YOU could start a prayer flag initiative in YOUR community? Let prayer flags and messages of love, hope and unity go viral globally!

Below you’ll find some more pictures of the giant puppets and some of the flags that will be on display:

Thanks for looking!

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook(The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

This article (Prayer Flags of Hope Set to Soothe Community Anxiety) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen