Second Life Toys has launched its organ transplant awareness campaign. The Japanese company uses stuffed animals to bring attention to the cause.
The founder Toga Kida is collecting stuffed animals which need a transplant. They are stuffies with torn limbs, missing pieces and so on.
People can then donate donor stuffed animals via the campaign’s website. Thus some interesting new stuffies are born. For example an elephant with a new nose thanks to a tail from a squirrel. Or a giraffe with a new leg thanks to a stuffed monkey and so on.
Donor toys also get to continue to live. This time along with the new friend they have helped save.
“Our hope is that, through this website and this initiative, more people will have a deeper understanding of organ transplant and actually contribute to the lives to be saved”, Kida explains.
Organ transplant in Japan is an issue. Each year only about 300 people out of a total of 14,000 on waiting lists get the replacement organs they need, which is far behind the rest of the world.
