This is Inncocent, an African wire-crafter, and his colleague below . . .

They are from the Hillcrest Aids Center. They are both HIV+ and live in Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa. Hoops 4 Hope commissioned them to make these wonderful designs so that the organization can auction them down the road to help raise funds. “In the course of our work at Hillcrest, it has became more and more evident that in order to care holistically, we had to address people’s basic needs and indeed ‘put food on the table,’” Director Mark Crandall told Bounce recently. “We found that many HIV positive people were developing to full blown AIDS sooner because of malnutrition and poverty. Our employment project has more than 250 members registered within the various income generating activities.”

Willard, a self-employed wire crafter who created the Feeling African art cooperative that employs people from the Phillipe township in Western Cape, created the Nike Shox below that will also be auctioned to help raise funds:

For info on how you can help, contact Mark Crandall at hoops4hope@mac.com or go to www.hoopsafrica.org. You can also read up on their organization on our site here.