Giving dolls as a gift an act of love, according to special educator

NUEVA GERONA, Cuba, Mar 19 (ACN) In view of the serious epidemiological scenario facing the Special Municipality of the Isle of Youth, special educator Mirtha Pérez Carballo gave away her dolls to children with special needs, a decision that she describes as nothing but an act of love.

While social isolation and quarantine are effective measures against COVID-19, people in general and children in particular pay a price, particularly the latter, used as they were to running, jumping around and playing without restrictions “until the disease arrived,” she holds. “That's why I decided to devote my leisure time to making rag dolls, imagining my patients playing with and hugging a toy that I made with my own hands,” she says smiling.

Dr. Pérez Carballo knows firsthand what it means to be alone and confined. Barely a few days after she returned from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Cuba reported the first COVID-19 cases in the Island.

“As a Primary Care professional, I would get involved in case-finding and –tracing and then shut myself at home, where loneliness encouraged me to make rag dolls, one of my favorite hobbies to cope with stress that I eventually turned into my own occupational therapy.

“The pandemic has outlived expectations and changed everyone's life. Some families live in overcrowded conditions and become too tense, so donating my dolls to these children with special educational needs makes me happy,” she said.