VARIA: ON CROATIAN CAUSES

Here we may post various information  and quests sent to VoC, which our readers might be able to help us with. News, new books, reviews and all other info in connection with VoC’s objectives.

1 comment

  1. VoC-Mailbox says:
    January 6, 2010 at 22:13

    De : phylliswheaton
    Envoyé : 6 janvier 2010 18:11
    À : voiceofcroatia@voiceofcroatia.net
    Objet : VoC Contact

    Hello,

    I am writing a book about the Izzy Doll and am hoping you can help me.

    I am writing to ask your assistance in locating some of the children, now adults, who were recipients of the earliest Izzy Dolls. I would be interested in finding a way to contact some of these children now grown, and ask how receiving a doll helped comfort or bring them joy in any way.

    Would you have a name of a journalist I could correspond with, who can take this story to your readers?
    Or perhaps you would have another idea on how I could find some of these children?

    Thank you very much
    Phyllis Wheaton
    Calgary, Alberta Canada

    Here is a little information about the Izzy Doll :

    Cpl Mark Isfeld was on tour in Croatia in 1994 when he was killed by a landmine. During his tour there, he always was deeply touched by needs of the children. He sent a photo he had taken of a doll in a pile of rubble, to his mother in Canada. He said, “Mom, a little girl has lost her doll and a doll has lost her little girl”.
    He also explained that the children didn’t have a childhood.

    His Mom decided to make little dolls that could fit in her soldier son’s pocket so he could give them out to children he met. After his death many other soldiers continued to give out these dolls. More and more Canadian moms and grandmothers began making the dolls in the hope they could comfort and bring joy to little children.

    As a result of another veterans organization called ICROSS Canada Izzy dolls were distributed to ‘the poorest of the poor’, to orphaned babes dying of aids, and many children who would hold onto their Izzy doll, their only worldly possession. To date over 800,000 dolls have been hand made and distributed to children of war and the poorest of the poor.