Comfort Dolls

child at LVI hospital with comfort dollInspired by one of our GSGC members and with the help of the Auburn, Washington Sewing Circle along with other volunteers, the Global Sojourns Giving Circle is providing Comfort Dolls to children in our partner organizations in Livingstone, Zambia and Cape Town, South Africa.  Children who are experiencing adversity in the form of abuse, illness or the loss of a parent may receive a hand made doll sent with care and love.

Volunteers sew gender and ethnically neutral dolls that are designed to be ‘huggable’.

Members have hand carried these dolls to Africa where they have been distributed to:

  • Ill children at a hospital in Livingstone
  • Children identified by our partner and friend Lynne Silawa at the Tutulike Preschool in Livingstone
  • Children at Nonceba Trust, a counseling center that helps abused, neglected and orphaned children in the Khayelitsha Township outside Cape Town
  • Individual children who have been identified by our African partners who  are in special need of some comfort

We have begun mailing the comfort dolls to Cape Town with the help of Uthando (a GSGC partner), DHL and Rotary International.  Shipping and customs can be very expensive and challenging and with this helpful partnership, we will be able to provide the dolls on a regular basis.

Two teachers in our Circle enlisted the help of their young students and created handmade tags with a personal greeting to accompany each doll for every young child receiving them.  The students were very happy to help and a special connection was made with children helping children.

We encourage members, donors and friends to join this ‘global’ sewing circle and help us by making these very special comfort dolls or even providing material to those who can sew.  The pattern and directions can be found here.

girl choosing a comfort doll at Nonceba_2010

“This picture is taken in the counseling office at Nonceba Centre and shows a young victim of abuse selecting a doll.  Sadly, we cannot show the full faces of the children or share their names as they must be protected and in many cases prosecutions are in place.  I cannot try to describe the tiny face as she holds a doll for the first time and thinks about what its name will be. Faith, Hope and Charity in the vernacular are often the choice; but that face is so special.”

Don Peters is a Rotary member and contributor to the Nonceba Centre.