Southern Sun's World Cup flags become eiderdowns

With 64 Southern Sun hotels in South Africa having proudly hoisted the flags of the FIFA World Cup participants, the question now is what to do with these beautiful pieces of fabric? Ever conscious of the broader social environment, Southern Sun Hotels' new project is transforming thousands of flags into beautiful blankets for underprivileged children.

"With winter upon us, this initiative provides the perfect opportunity to extend the sense of delight we are all revelling in post the World Cup," said Priya Naidoo, GM of communications at Southern Sun. "If we harness our sense of creativity as a nation, there is a myriad of means to augment the positive effects of this recent event."

The unemployed to sew

Rather than discard the many flags adorning its hotels, Southern Sun has sourced warm, cost-effective blanketing material and has appointed previously disadvantaged unemployed individuals with access to industrial sewing machines, to sew the flags onto the blankets, thereby producing eiderdowns.

The project has been launched internally, but ultimately Southern Sun Hotels aims to inspire other South African organisations to do the same. "We encourage businesses to participate in this venture and would be happy for them to utilise the resources and infrastructure we have in place," said Naidoo.

Southern Sun will have approximately 2000 blankets to distribute in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

"This project will generate employment, uplift communities and, by reusing the flags, it will reduce environmental waste too," said Naidoo. "Most importantly, it will physically extend the wonderful sense of warmth associated with the World Cup."