Bringing Smiles to Children in Conflict Zones

"I'm hoping that the attention will cause a lot more knitters to be aware that these innocent children are coming into our country and they've been sort of bumped around from place to place, and these little dolls will bring them comfort."
"It's about the person knitting the doll because to me it speaks for Canadian women. It says we care about the children of the world, we care about the soldiers and health care workers, when they get the dolls there's always smiles on their faces -- and when you are knitting the dolls knowing that all that love is coming from Canada to the children of the world."
Shirley O'Connell, local organizer, RCMP widow, grandmother

200 Izzy Dolls ready to be given out. Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen

"At first the children were nervous about approaching us as we came into their village, but once they saw the dolls poking out from the top of the boxes we were carrying, we were all but mobbed by excited young Afghans holding out their little hands, calling out, 'Mister, mister!'."
"Before I realized it, the box was empty and there were dozens of happy little faces milling around, enjoying their new treasures."
Cpl.James Oakley, Kabul, Afghanistan mission

Yes, dolls, little soft dolls meant to appeal to very young children, and appeal they do. They're made as either a little girl model or a boy model. The boys' dolls wear the blue UN berets, while the girl dolls come with braids and a floppy hat. They are completely knitted. As a volunteer project in memory of a Canadian soldier who died in the line of duty. They're made in his memory because it was he who began the tradition of Canadian soldiers handing out dolls to children in zones of conflict.

These are dolls meant for one specific purpose and one purpose only; to bring a smile to the face of a child whose life has been disrupted by war, by poverty, by uncertainty for the future. They're named Izzy Dolls. Named in memory of Master Cpl. Mark Isfeld, of No.1 Combat Engineer Regiment. He had been serving on peacekeeping missions in Kuwait and Croatia in the early 1990s. And while there he came across children with no possessions, let alone toys.

Izzy dolls were inspired by and named after Master Cpl. Mark Isfeld of No. 1 
Combat Engineer Regiment who was killed while removing landmines in Croatia.  
Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen

He informed his mother, Carol Isfeld, of his sadness for these deprived children, and her response was to knit small woollen dolls that she arranged through the military to be delivered to him abroad. And in this way Mark Isfeld began a tradition respected and valued for its simple plan to touch the hearts of truly disadvantaged children with little to call their own.

Master Cpl. Isfeld had a double humanitarian mission; he was tasked as an engineer to remove landmines. And it was this vital life-saving task that took his own life. His mother also died in the years that followed. But his idea, and her enterprise live on. Those little woollen dolls are still being produced by volunteers who are happy to make those colourful, soft six-inch-tall objects of comfort to children.

And members of the Canadian military still visit villages where children live isolated lives with their parents, far from urban centres, and often victimized by local conflicts. Canadian soldiers over the years along with health care workers have handed out over 1.3-million of those plushy toys to children living in countries torn by war or in areas afflicted by natural disasters. The RCMP recently took with them 800 Izzy Dolls to give to children in Haiti.

A Canadian soldier gives an Izzy doll to girls in Afghanistan.

The dolls — made either as boys with the peacekeepers’ UN blue berets or girl dolls with braids to appeal to both small boys and to little girls. A design for their creation can be found on the website www.izzydoll.ca/ to enable knitters to follow the instructions contained there, although volunteers are also informed they should feel free to produce their own version. They're meant to be no larger than six inches, and light-weight, to enable easy transport.

Shirley O'Connell speaks of the dolls' effect on children during times of stress. And she had made an appeal to others to join this collective effort in view of anticipated Syrian refugee children arriving in Canada in the next few months to begin life anew, outside a war zone. She volunteers with church groups and the International Community for the Relief of Suffering and Starvation [ICROSS] Canada.

Shirley O’Connell is appealing to the knitting community to help make crocheted 
Izzy Dolls (www.izzydoll.ca) for refugee children when they arrive in Canada.  
Jean Levac / Ottawa Citizen