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"Why pillows? Aren't these pillows just a big
puzzle to people? Could they seem like just a token with little impact
or meaning to many of these terribly poor families?"
No. We have found that after giving pillows to several thousand
children in Central America and Peru that magic pillows are received as
long lasting, very personal gifts from the SOFTLY team. They convey our
loving hope for comfort, safety, and assurance. And they are SOFT - like
all children with their "blankie" - watch how these little ones hug
their new pillows close to their smiling faces. |
When
SOFTLY International, the
Unity based children’s service organization, started the first
“A Bed
For Every Child” program in Costa Rica in 1997 we launched it with a
“Magic Pillow Night.” Nicaraguan refugee children were constantly sick
because they slept on the damp, dirt floor. They did not have a bed of
their own. SOFTLY set out to bring lumber and mattresses in order to
help the families build their own beds.
The night before the “bed build” the children and their parents were
invited to the school yard to see a prototype of the two and three level
bunk beds and to each receive a “magic pillow.” Rev. Juan Enrique Toro,
the minister of Unity in Costa Rica gave a little talk about the
importance of dreams and the principle of “mind/action” – what you hold
in your mind or dreams can be the affirmation of what you co-create for
yourself. |
And
what about the decorated pillowcases? Why are they called Magic
Dream pillowcases? What is their importance?
When children capture dreams for themselves or other children
using their own artistic expression they create magic. The
pictures and designs, along with the prayers and affirmations
are the last thing they see as they go to bed and the first
images as they wake up. We often say: "What is held in mind will
be created in kind." Or to quote the music from South Pacific -
"If you don't have a dream; how ya gonna have a dream come
true?"
The pillows are not meant to be end but a beginning - the
beginning of a process of working together for general
improvement in the life of a child. How can we move forward with
what we need and want without being able to visualize it, affirm
it, to pray for it? |
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