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These cuddly teddy bears deliver a dose of delight to kids in refugee camps.

Bringing comfort to kids, one bear at a time.

Look at this adorable teddy bear.

This is a Threadies bear.


SO CUTE. All photos from Threadies, used with permission.

Threadies bears are incredibly special.

Threadies bears have a very important job.

They bring childhood comforts to kids in refugee camps.

The idea for Threadies came after co-creator Steve Lehmann visited Haiti a year after the massive 2010 earthquake, where he observed that for the children growing up in the wake of the disaster, it was "as if the basic ingredients of childhood had been violently ripped away."

Looking back on his own childhood, Lehmann remembered how much comfort he got from his favorite stuffed animal. And while his childhood is without a doubt a vastly different experience from that of a child refugee, it occurred to him that perhaps there was something universal about the comforting quality of a stuffed animal.

Here's Lehmann during that trip to Haiti.

After visiting refugees in Haiti — along with refugees in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda — Lehmann resolved to find a way to bring those ingredients of childhood to children living in poverty, war, or in the wake of natural disasters.

Threadies are made specifically with humanitarian emergencies in mind.

Lehmann enlisted help from his friend Andrew Jones, and the two started work on creating, as Jones describes it, "a teddy bear that is both adorably cute and extremely comforting."

After two years of work and the help of experts and nongovernmental organizations around the world, Threadies was born.

Hello, Threadies! You're looking absolutely adorable today!

The first batch of 60 Threadies bears was delivered to Syrian children at Azraq refugee camp in Jordan in August 2015.

The kids at Azraq loved the hand-sewn bears. For a group of children for whom relocation from their homes has been especially hard, the bears were an unexpected comfort. While there's no way to make up for the loss of their homes or the distance from relatives, the children greeted their new stuffed animals with smiles, laughter, and love.

The kids at Azraq loved the bears. One said he's going to name it after his mother.

Each bear comes with a "coping kit." The kit is basically the bear and a set of "coping cards," which fit into its front pocket. The cards are based on the research of Dr. Meghan Marsac of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and they contain useful tips to work through symptoms of trauma, such as night sweats, bed-wetting, bad dreams, and anxiety attacks.

The first delivery was so successful that Lehmann and Jones are ready to take Threadies to the next level.

The pair has enlisted the help of fair trade manufacturer Child's Cup Full, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting refugee women in the West Bank, to produce the bears.

Child's Cup Full trains and employs women, pays them the "wage rate set by the United Nations for a head of a household with children," and helps to fund local childhood education programs.

"We're really proud of this," Threadies co-founder Andrew Jones told Upworthy, acknowledging that, "as a result, each bear from CCF costs us about eight times what it would cost to make in China."

Each handmade bear is a bit different from the others, with fabric and design varying a bit on each one.

CCF works with a group called International Medical Corps (IMC) to make sure the bears reach kids who are the most in need.

For every bear bought in the U.S., a "twin" bear will be delivered to a child in a refugee camp.

In place of the "coping kit" given to the Syrian children, the U.S. bears come with short poems to help their new owners learn about and empathize with the children of the refugee crisis in a gentle, age-appropriate way.

These little poems tackle heavy issues like feeling sad, missing friends, having bad dreams, or being scared.


I'm a grown adult, and I think even I could benefit from these at times.

It costs $40 to buy a Threadies bear and give one to a child in a refugee camp. And while that price may seem a little steep, Jones said the price breaks down into four categories: "labor, programming, logistics, and re-investment."

With an estimated 60 million refugees in the world (half are children), Threadies has their work cut out for them.

In every sense of the word, Threadies is a startup, and Jones said that any money the company raises that doesn't go toward paying the workers, transporting materials and goods, and paying CCF will be reinvested in the company to begin scaling up to get the bears more widely distributed.

"We will not be paying ourselves a dime from the Kickstarter," he said.

"Even if we're wildly successful with Kickstarter, we'll only be able to deliver a fraction of the bears that are truly needed," Jones explained. "In two refugee camps in Jordan alone, we could deliver over 50,000 bears without blinking. The true need is closer to a million, and that's just Syria."

The goal is, with the help of IMC, to be able to swoop in and deliver bears to children wherever there's unrest in the world. ("We want to go to East and Central Africa next," Jones said.)

But right now they're just trying to fund the next batch of bears.

Interested in purchasing your very own bear (and helping fund one for a refugee child)? Check out Threadies on Kickstarter.

Health

4 simple hacks to help you meet your healthy eating goals

Trying to eat healthier? Try these 4 totally doable tricks.

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Most of us want to eat healthier but need some help to make it happen.

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When it comes to choosing what to eat, we live in a uniquely challenging era. Never before have humans known more about nutrition and how to eat for optimal health, and yet we’ve never been more surrounded by distractions and temptations that derail us from making healthy choices.

Some people might be able to decide “I’m going to eat healthier!” and do so without any problem, but those folks are unicorns. Most of us know what we should do, but need a little help making it happen—like some simple hacks, tips and tricks for avoiding pitfalls on the road to healthier eating.

While recognizing that what works for one person may not work for another, here are some helpful habits and approaches that might help you move closer to your healthy eating goals.

man pulling chip out of a chip bagOur mouths loves chips. Our bodies not so much.Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Goal: Snack on less junk food

Tip: Focus your willpower on the grocery store, not your home

Willpower is a limited commodity for most of us, and it is no match for a bag of potato chips sitting on top of the fridge. It’s just a fact. Channeling your willpower at the grocery store can save you from having to fight that battle at home. If you don’t bring chips into your house in the first place, you’ll find it a lot easier to reach for something healthier.

The key to successful shopping trips is to always go to the store with a specific list and a full stomach—you’ll feel much less tempted to buy the junky snack foods if you’re already satiated. Also, finding healthier alternatives that will still satisfy your cravings for salty or crunchy, or fatty foods helps. Sugar snap peas have a surprisingly satisfying crunch, apples and nut butter hit that sweet-and-salty craving, etc.

slice of cakeYou can eat well without giving up sweets completely.Photo by Caitlyn de Wild on Unsplash

Goal: Eat less sugar

Tip: Instead of “deprive,” think “delay” or “decrease and delight”

Sugar is a tricky one. Some people find it easier to cut out added sugars altogether, but that can create an all-or-nothing mindset that all too often results in “all.” Eating more whole foods and less processed foods can help us cut out a lot of ancillary sugar, but we still live in a world with birthday cakes and dessert courses.

One approach to dessert temptation is to delay instead of deprive. Tell yourself you can have any sweet you want…tomorrow. This mental trick flips the “I’ll just indulge today and start eating healthier tomorrow” idea on its head. It’s a lot easier to resist something you know you can have tomorrow than to say no to something you think you’ll never get to have again.

Another approach when you really want to enjoy a dessert at that moment is to decrease the amount and really truly savor it. Eat each bite slowly, delighting in the full taste and satisfaction of it. As soon as that delight starts to diminish, even a little, stop eating. You’ve gotten what you wanted out of it. You don’t have to finish it. (After all, you can always have more tomorrow!)

colorful fresh food on a plateA naturally colorful meal is a healthy meal.Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Goal: Eat healthier meals

Tip: Focus on fresh foods and plan meals ahead of time

Meal planning is easier than ever before. The internet is filled with countless tools—everything from recipes to shopping lists to meal planning apps—and it’s as awesome as it is overwhelming.

Planning ahead takes the guesswork and decision fatigue out of cooking, preventing the inevitable “Let’s just order a pizza.” You can have a repeating 3-week or 4-week menu of your favorite meals so you never have to think about what you’re going to eat, or you can meal plan once a week to try new recipes and keep things fresh.

It might help to designate one day a week to “shop and chop”—getting and prepping the ingredients for the week’s meals so they’re ready to go in your fridge or freezer.

woman holding blueberries in her handsOrganic foods are better for the Earth and for us.Photo by andrew welch on Unsplash

Goal: Eat more organic/humanely raised food

Tip: Utilize the “dirty dozen” and “clean 15” lists to prioritize

Many people choose organic because they want to avoid pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals. Organic food is also better for the planet, and according to the Mayo Clinic, studies have shown that organic produce is higher in certain nutrients.

Most people don’t buy everything organic, but there are some foods that should take priority over others. Each year, researchers from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyze thousands of samples of dozens of fruits and vegetables. From this data, they create a list of the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” fruits and vegetables, indicating what produce has the most and least pesticide residue. These lists give people a good place to start focusing their transition to more organic foods.

To make organic eating even simpler, you can shop O Organics® at your local Albertsons or Safeway stores. The O Organics brand offers a wide range of affordable USDA-certified organic products in every aisle. If you’re focusing on fresh foods, O Organics produce is always grown without synthetic pesticides, is farmed to conserve biodiversity, and is always non-GMO. All animal-based O Organics products are certified humane as well. Even switching part of your grocery list to organic can make a positive impact on the planet and the people you feed.

Healthy eating habits don’t have to be all or nothing, and they don’t have to be complicated. A few simple mindset changes at home and habit changes at the grocery store can make a big difference.

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