Disability and diversity — meet the dolls with a difference
Every child is unique — so why should they all have the same boring doll? One Dear World aims to change the face of children’s soft toys, by creating loveable dolls with a wide range of ethnicities, cultures and disabilities.
Their aim is twofold: to help kids feel more represented by toys that look like them, and to encourage a better awareness of diversity amongst children from a young age, helping them to be more culturally aware and inclusive as they grow up and meet children who are different from themselves.
One Dear World is an independent brand of soft toy dolls created by Winnie Mak and Rafael Tselikas — a multicultural family living in London. Winnie was born and bred in Hong Kong and Rafael is half French half Greek.
Frustrated by the lack of diversity available in soft toy dolls available for their young son, Winnie created a range of multicultural dolls and a storybook featuring children from all over the world, with a range of conditions and disabilities.
“We believe all children should have dolls that represent them, as well as dolls that look different from them so that they can grow up with a vision of being friends with anyone, regardless of race, gender or disability.
My aim is that the dolls will not only appeal to children as a toy but can be used by parents or educators to start conversations about inclusivity and diversity.”
To further her commitment to promote diversity and inclusion, Winnie has launched a new crowdfunding campaign to extend the current collection to include six new inclusive disability dolls, with 10% of sales supporting a corresponding charity.
Every doll comes with an accompanying booklet which gives their name, place of birth and a short story about themselves, including a famous role model who experiences a similar condition, and facts and further information on their disability.
For Winnie, it was important that the dolls also helped people with real experience of the disabilities — but she soon discovered that giving to charity as a small business can be a legal hassle.
“When I did my research and reached out to my AFK in January 2019, I realised as a small business, working with charities could be a complicated process that involves legal contracts such as commercial partnership agreements.
My contact at my AFK pointed me to Work for Good, an organisation that facilitates that legal aspect of business donations. So after some more research and reaching out, I have chosen six conditions to represent in our dolls, and it comes naturally for us to donate to charities that support those conditions. I like how the platform on Work for Good makes it easy and flexible for businesses to donate to charities.”
By giving through Work for Good, One Dear World were able to set up charity agreements quickly and easily, and can now promote their 10% donations with every doll. We can’t wait to see One Dear World take off and spread their message of inclusivity to kids all over the world.
Find out more about each of the charities supported by One Dear World dolls here:
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Love the One Dear World dolls as much as we do? Visit One Dear World to shop the whole collection, and contribute to their crowdfunding campaign here.
Your business could donate to charity just like One Dear World — and with Work for Good you can make it happen in just a few clicks, for free!
We take care of the legal admin for you — plus we’ll help you set your own donation targets, pay donations to the charities and promote your giving to your clients and customers. Visit the Work for Good website to find out more.
