WOMEN from Stockton’s Soroptimist Club have been knitting baby hats for children in Africa.

The branch of the global volunteer organisation got their knitting needles out after a request from a fellow soroptimist working in Sierra Leone.

The hats are being created to send to a birthing clinic in the Kori area of Sierra Leone.

In just two weeks the club has produced more than 70 hats - 50 of them knitted by one member.

The hats will be put together with other baby clothes made or donated by Soroptimist clubs around the country and be delivered to the clinic.

The baby clothes are used as an incentive for mothers to use the birth clinics, where having babies is safer, in a country where mothers often prefer to give birth at home. However, the mother and child mortality rate is high because of this.

Thanks to the soroptimists, mothers and babies leave the clinics with a little parcel of baby clothes, which has been providing an incentive to use the clinics more. Stockton Soroptimists will continue to support the project.