Content via Huffington Post
A new project has pinned down a brilliant way to teach kids about organ transplants.
A Japanese organization called Second Life Toys collects broken stuffed animals. Some of these plushies are “donors” and others are “toys to receive an implant.” The idea is that parts from the donor dolls are stitched onto the recipient dolls, breathing new life into once broken toys.
The toys are meant to represent human lives saved through organ transplants. The idea is that the spruced up stuffed animals will help raise awareness and understanding in Japan about the importance of organ transplants and donations — starting with kids.
It’s a message that desperately needs to be spread.
“In Japan currently there are about 14,000 people waiting for organ transplants,” Misa Ganse, director of operations at the Japan Organ Transplant Network and a committee director of Green Ribbon Project, which is working with Second Life Toys, said. “Among them, only 300 receive the actual organ transplant annually.”
According to The Japanese Times, in the U.S., there are 7,000 to 8,000 organ transplants every year.
“Which works out to about 26 organ transplants per million population,” writes the publication. “Contrast that to Japan, where the rate is just 0.9 transplants per million, the lowest rate in the industrialized world.”
