Made using waste fabric with minimal adornments, Kemi is everything simple and cute, but the tiny dolls designed by the students of Government SNDP Upper Primary School, Pattathanam, also have a mission to accomplish.
Inspired by Chekuttis, the dolls of hope, the school started making Kemis in September and now they have nearly 2,000 dolls ready to hit the market.
“Kemi is the shortened version of Kerala Mithram and the proceedings from their sales will go to differently abled children in various flood-affected parts,” says school Principal V. Vijyakumar.
Priced at ₹30, the Kemi dolls were launched recently by actor Vijay Babu at a function at the school.
Supportive team
Mr. Vijyakumar says the entire school, including faculty members and even parents, are quite supportive of the initiative.
“During floods so many differently abled children lost their books and toys. They need a lot of love and caring and it is an attempt on our part to bring that smile back on their faces,” he adds.
During the past few months, all the students in the school have been spending their free time making Kemi dolls, which come with a string so that they can be used as key chains or hanging ornaments.
Old clothes
“We asked the students to bring old, useless cloth from their homes and mixed it with the fresh fabric we collected. Cloth was cut in circles for the base and the waste from it was used for filling the head portion. Later we added the cap, hair, eyes and lips,” says Jyothy P.L., teacher and coordinator of the project.
Training
Students were first trained in doll making after school hours with the permission of parents and Ms. Jyothy says they took no time in mastering the craft.
“They all love making dolls and some of them are so fast that they can make a doll in 10 minutes,” she adds.
The amount collected from the sales will be handed over to the Social Justice Department so that it will reach the right beneficiaries.
Good response
“We want to sell 3,000 dolls in the first phase and we plan to market the product through our students. We also opened a counter at school on Wednesday afternoon and 80% of the dolls were sold in a couple of hours,” she says.
