Lookalike Dolls for Children with Disabilities #WATWB

It’s the last Friday of the month, and I have a beautiful story to share with you!

Dolls are one of the the first companions of children. Children like to mirror their own lives in their doll plays. Beyond ‘just a play thing,’ that we see in dolls, they offer a deep bonding to a child who likes to carry them all over their worlds. Imagine a child having a limb difference. What is having a perfectly beautiful companion like Barbie going to mean to her? We may never understand the depth of what exactly happens within a child in such situations.

But, Amy Jandrisevit of Wisconsin, a passionate doll-maker, thought she can do something about it. In her experience of having used play therapy as a social worker at the pediatric oncology department, she saw how therapeutic dolls can be. When a woman she knew reached out to her for making a look-alike doll for her daughter whose leg was amputated, Amy knew exactly what she ought to do. She began to make lookalike dolls for children with different abilities or birthmarks or defects.

Jandrisevit says, “It makes them not feel so alone. Their logical brain knows this is just a doll. But the very innocent child part of them still feels like ‘Now I’m not the only one that looks this way.”

In four years, she has made more than 300 dolls. Her goal is not to make the families pay for it, for that is the imprtance she associates with mental healthcare. With the funds she raises through GoFundMe and the little space her dining table provides, she continues to bring a smile on several innocent faces.

You can read the news and watch the video of Amy’s doll-making here.

You can get in touch with her through her Facebook page, A doll like me.

You can make a contribution towards her goal through GoFund Me here.

More about We are The World Blogfest

“We are The World Blogfest” was initiated by Damyanti Biswas and Belinda Witzenhausen on 31st March 2017. WATWB seeks to promote positive news. It believes that there are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit and that sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world.

This month’s WATWB event is co-hosted by wonderful bloggers, Shilpa Garg,  Sylvia McGrath , Belinda WitzenHausen, Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas. Please do visit their blogs to read more touching stories from around the world. And let’s spread this circle of love and peace through our social media channels with the hashtag #WATWB

If you are a blogger and would like to sign-up for WATWB and be a part of this meaningful network, visit here.