These kids need to hear that they did a good job. some of them just want to be hugged and held
It is important for a boy to take his doll around and love it because he is learning to nurture
always appropriate for kids and they always look a certain way. I think Dumyé is the antithesis of that — it is about having ing a a doll doll that is beautiful but ethical in every way. A And people want that.” She’s no ot wrong. Having begun as a tiny y startup in 2013, Dumyé has g grown exponentially over the ye ears. Today, the dolls are distribut ted to the UK, US, Hong Kong, Australia and Germany, amo ongst other countries. T They were also named amongst the ‘ top 10 toys to gift kids during the holiday season’ by InStyle e magazine last year. But, for Sa ahar, what really matters is a ch hance to give back. It isn n’t always easy, especially since Dum myé is run by a team of five. It’s why th hey partner with NGOS to distribute e their dolls to the underprivileged. T The team started off small, by conducting a workshop with Sharjah Children’s Care Centre, before moving on to larger projects in orphanages in Lebanon and Egypt. Their workshops are usually held for kids between the age of five and 18, and begin by getting MADE FROM SCRATCH: Volunteers take the children through the creative process — from drawing the designs to stitching the clothes them to draw a design of their choice on a piece of paper.p Volunteers then hand them the dolld so they can personalise it in any w ay they want.
“It’s really cut te,” says Sahar. “You see children who cre eate the dolls according to what they y want to be when they grow up o or what their best friends, or evenn volunteers, look like. We then he elp the kids sew on shirts and pan nts or skirts. As adults, we wan nt things to be perfect. But th he best part about children is that they don’t function that way — they are so pro ud because they made thei ir dolls with their own two h hands. They always come upu and ask us what we think of their dolls, not just because they are proud of their work but because they need th he affirmation. They need to hear that th hey did a good job because they don’t hearh it enough. Some of these kids ju ust want to be hugged and held. So o we do that.” Working with Sy yrian refugees in Lebanon was ano other ballgame because many wer re children of war — and giving themt a chance to unleash their creativityc gave Sahar a heartb breaking look into their live es. “Once, we had a boy cove er his doll with drawings of bullet holes. It took a volun nteer’s coaxing to get him tot sew clothes on,” she confesse es.
“It is also surprising to see how many of them would draw their doll in a garden or a green place. These kids are just starved for greenery because the refugee camps have none of it. It is heartbreaking, but this is their reality. And without a medium to express themselves, what can they do? These are complex concepts for an adult to wrap their heads around and it is so hard for these children because they don’t have family or anyone close to them. I’m not saying the dolls will solve everything, but being able to express yourself is the beginning to finding relief.”
At the end of the two- and- a- halfhour long workshop, the children get to keep the dolls they’ve designed. Sahar was surprised to see how many of the kids — irrespective of the orphanage they visited — wanted plastic sleeves so they could keep their dolls clean. Upon asking, she learned that it was the first time some of them had gotten anything new in three years.
“The beauty of the doll is that it is a small human form,” says Sahar. “In their universe, children are usually the last in command — there’s always someone telling them what to do. But when you give a child something that is smaller than them, suddenly, they are in control. They get to decide what they want to do with it — what is right and what is wrong. I’ve seen kids put their dolls in the ‘ naughty corner’, and you may not realise it, but these are things that are important. They are role- playing and they are developing their own personalities.”
Along the way, Dumyé is also breaking the stereotype that it’s only girls who play with dolls. “Sometimes, I think the boys are more excited than the girls,” laughs Sahar. “People have told me to take soccer balls for the boys because ‘ boys don’t want to play with dolls’,” says Sahar. “And to those people I say, ‘ Come to my workshops and then tell me that!’. All the kids are so enthusiastic.
“I think it is important to note that it’s the adults who make assumptions about what children should and shouldn’t play with. But for a boy to take his doll around and love it — it’s so important because he is learning to nurture. We want our boys to learn how to be nurturing because that is the kind of men we want them to grow into!”
The workshops are often intense, Sahar admits. At the moment, Dumyé does one trip every year wherein they visit several organisations and NGOS. And while a single trip can be more than exhausting, Sahar believes it is one of the most heartbreaking and heartwarming experiences a person can have.
“Just last trip, I came across these three kids who were sitting together and they made their dolls into doctors because that’s what they wanted to become. I thought that was so amazing. Many of these places — they are not in good neighbourhoods. The air is thick and everything is dirty. But to see children dreaming of these things, it makes me happy. If we can nurture such ambitions, then I’m up for it. That’s how we break the cycle.”
janice@ khaleejtimes. com SMILES ALL AROUND: Volunteers interact with Syrian refugee children and orphans in Lebanon during their workshops in 2015