KOLLAM: Following the way how Chekkutty, the soft doll made of handloom clothes stained and torn in floods, wiped the tears of the flood affected – the students of a school in Kollam have come up with a novel idea to produce and sell dolls to help the differently abled children in flood affected areas. Named after ‘KeMi’ or ‘Kerala Mitram’, the friend of Kerala, the soft dolls are hand made by the children of SNDPUP school in Pattathanam here.
Introducing the doll, the first sale of KeMi was done by actor-turned producer Vijay Babu by handing over to actor Rejisha Vijayan. The students also engaged in live production of dolls while it was being inaugurated at the school premises.
The news that brought information regarding the difficulties faced by differently abled children in flood affected areas has sparked the thought of KeMi. The students wanted to help them out and the idea was conceived. The doll was named KeMi which means ‘smart girl’ in Malayalam by R. Nanda, a Seventh Standard student with the school.
The students have already manufactured over 1,500 soft dolls using waste clothes, sparing an hour after their studies every day since September last year. The differently-abled students with the school were also actively involved in the doll production.
Each doll takes around 20 minutes to get manufactured and the students aim at a total of 3000 dolls. These dolls will be sold out by students in households and business establishments collecting Rs 30 each for a doll. The amount collected will be handed over to social justice department to the benefit of differently abled children in flood affected areas.
Students engaged in making soft doll KeMi.
