A doll made of rolled-up white material has a special meaning in Belarus. Some 40 years ago, the country experienced an epidemic of scarlet fever. In one of the villages, almost all the children died. But there was one little girl whose grandmother had made an “Aleysa” doll for her and placed it on the child’s heart, saying it would save her life, and her life was spared. A similar “Alesya” doll, made by 12-year-old Elena of Belarus, appears in a special exhibit of toys created by CCF children around the world. The collection, currently in the lobby of CCF’s Richmond headquarters, features about 250 toys, each with its own story. Plans are underway to exhibit the toys in children’s museums around the U.S. Dr. John Schultz, CCF president, found the inspiration for the exhibit while visiting Kenya in May 2000 during the famine. After witnessing tremendous human suffering, he watched, amazed, as a group of children sailed hand-made toy boats on Lake Turkana. “I was expecting to see children and their families either begging, or sitting idly by the side of the road waiting for their fate,” he said. “But I was struck by the fact that they were having a childhood, in spite of the famine and emergency at hand.” He admired one boys’ boat, which was made of a rubber flip-flop, twigs and plastic bags. The child presented him with the boat, and CCF’s collection began. Like the flip-flop boat, most of the toys in the collection are made from discarded items, which were given new life in the hands of the children. A construction site provided the raw materials for a Zambian boy, who created a miniature 10-speed bike from tiny, elaborately twisted wires. An 11-year-old boy in Brazil turned two sardine cans into a car and a trailer. One child made an oil delivery truck out of discarded materials after admiring the real trucks that sometimes passed by his town. Nalubuga, age 11, lives with her family in a poorly constructed shack in Uganda. But she calls the dollhouse she made out of banana leaf fiber and cardboard her “dream house”. That special toy sums up the hope of all the children, indicating how the toy exhibit captures not only the children’s inventiveness–but also their dreams. Copyright 2004. Christian Children’s Fund. All Rights Reserved. – This story was submitted by the Christian Children’s Fund