Ginny Doll is a 4-year old adorable doll with a radial club hand, nine fingers, and a brace to support her wrist.
Meet Shweta Verma. A mother and a social entrepreneur. Unlike other social entrepreneurs, Shweta has a unique approach to bring about change. She takes the help of a doll with a difference – to be the change agent! We got into an exciting conversation with Shweta where she spoke to HatkeStory about her doll and the new world she dreams of creating with the help of her doll.
As Shweta recalls, she has been working as a social worker in disability rights and mental health, and this engagement kept her committed to the vision of an inclusive world. However, the urgency was triggered after her son Soham was born with multiple congenital conditions. Soham has some special needs, and Shweta wanted to raise him in a world where no one is considered the odd-one-out based on differences. To her – disability is also a part of human diversity, and everyone should receive equal opportunities to flourish, especially the children.
The idea of the doll named ‘Ginny Doll’ and her planet occurred to Shweta and her husband Jamal Siddiqui in 2018. Soon after, She began her social entrepreneurship journey with a fellowship program for social entrepreneurs by SSE India. Following this, she started her social enterprise, Ginny’s Planet, and her husband in June 2019.
So, who is Ginny of Ginny’s planet?
Ginny is a 4-year old adorable doll with a radial club hand, nine fingers, and she wears a brace to support her wrist. Ginny also wears glasses to adjust her vision problem. Ginny loves the rain, she loves to play football, and she loves making new friends! Along with her friends, Ginny spreads one message – human diversity and inclusivity. Ginny makes children with disabilities realize that being different is okay. Ginny and her friends are usually playing together or soaking in the rain. You can read more about Ginny and her friends and what they are up to in their storybooks.
How was Ginny Doll born?
As mentioned, Ginny is a doll with some disabilities. “I drew inspiration from my life journey in forming Ginny and the other associated products. Although we have decent medical systems in our country, raising a child with disabilities is difficult for families. We need a lot of empathy, tenderness, and positive conversations. When I looked around for dolls or stories to pick for Soham, I couldn’t find much appropriate to give to him in the Indian context. That’s how Ginny was born, followed by the storybooks that talk about Ginny’s planet.”
Taking a peek at Ginny’s world
Ginny’s world is beautiful. No one is the odd-one-out on the planet. Each one is respected and embraced with a lot of empathy.
Armed with Ginny, Shweta and Jamal are set to build Ginny’s planet where disability is just another form of human diversity. Ginny’s world is a social enterprise that encourages teachers, educators, and parents to initiate conversations with kids about diversity, empathy, and inclusion with Ginny and her aspiring stories. Shweta organizes fun workshops for children and parents, where children are encouraged to make their own Ginny doll using stuff that is readily available at home.
Children are allowed to imagine Ginny in their way, keeping her basic features the same. These workshops’ beauty is none of the dolls are perfect – thus imbibing the concept of diversity and inclusion in the young minds. These workshops help the children – our future leaders to be kind, caring, and respectful towards diversity.
Shweta believes that how they learn to look at the world influences their future decisions, and these workshops are created to meet that requirement. The workshops are designed to help children understand and combat stereotypes, bias, and discrimination against disability from an early age. The workshops help them to respect diversity.
Ginny Doll for the adult minds too
Not just children, but Shweta’s social enterprise, arranges training and workshops for adults where conversations and engagement activities are done based on disability and diversity. These workshops are conducted in organizations to promote an understanding of disability, do’s and don’t s, and respect disability as a part of human diversity. The workshops aim to engage participants through audio-visual content, discussions, and different group activities. The structure of these workshops is customized according to the need of the group.
Apart from spreading a positive message about disability and diversity, Shweta works with other social enterprises and self-help groups. Shweta received the prestigious Women Startup Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 award by Adgully & Sheroes for her exemplary efforts.
The roadblocks
Like every startup, Ginny’s planet has got its share of the pinch of salt, especially to reach out to masses in the pandemic hit the world. However, Shweta is hopeful that things will turn out for good, and Ginny will find her way to more and more families out there. Let’s all join hands with Ginny to create an inclusive world for kids and adults everywhere!
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