Elsa R Lilienfeld, Founder of Dolls & Lions
Teacher, Trainer, RainMaker & ChangeMaker Extraordinaire
Meet
! South-African born and raised and now Australian transplant, she lives with her husband Peter in Perth, Australia, which is described by many as “the most isolated city in the world” given that the closest metropolis is over 2,000 km (1,200 mi) away.I met Elsa virtually thanks to an introduction from another Australian-based activist supporting work in Africa,
. Jessica introduced us based on our shared love for crochet and support for income-generating and community development activities in East Africa. Jessica rightly guessed that Elsa - who launched the Dolls & Lions Project in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya - and I might have something to talk about. Indeed we did and do!At age 62, Elsa has a depth and breadth of experience that requires a more in-depth article than this one. When I first met her (virtually), I asked if her origin story was written anywhere and if so, could she send me the link. Alas, to my surprise, nothing had been written… yet! And, so it is with great pleasure that I get to collaborate with Elsa on this post to shine a little light on her story and the impactful work she is doing with Dolls & Lions.
Elsa has deep professional experience training teachers, online facilitation and adapting online courses for maximum student engagement. This skill set combined with her interest in alternative educational pathways, motivation and child development makes Elsa an invaluable partner to vulnerable and under-resourced communities, particularly refugee communities like Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. For years now she has been leveraging her resources, knowledge, and experience to help partners on the ground address educational challenges in refugee and rural communities in Africa.
Elsa, who is a fine writer in her own right, gave me most of this interview in writing. Her story in her own words is magical so I will happily share her words in italics with minimal commentary of my own in brackets throughout.
The Dolls & Lions Origin Story
The main project I am currently involved with is the Dolls & Lions Project in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The idea is to distribute locally made crocheted dolls and lion toys to children aged 3 to 7. I instigated the Dolls & Lions Project in October 2020 after discovering the lack of suitable toys to stock a childcare room in Kakuma Refugee Camp for the children of trainees in the needlework and English courses at the training centre.
Matendo Nzika was teaching the handsewing classes at the time. She is very skilled and was enthusiastic about the idea of crocheting toys instead of buying the ugly pink plastic dolls available for sale in the camp.
The more I considered the benefits involved, the more excited I became! The children could benefit hugely on various levels. Apart from the basic and immediate therapeutic benefits of cuddling a soft toy, the long-term impact of imaginative play includes building empathy, which improves social skills such as conflict resolution and parenting later in life. There is also the therapeutic and financial benefit to the toymakers to consider, so the plan was extended for the team to provide toys to the wider community.
[It is at this point you might ask, as I did, Elsa, are you shipping crochet dolls and/or shipping the yarn? The answer is no and no. As Elsa has explained to me, the cost of shipping dolls handmade or otherwise to Kenya, particularly Kakuma Refugee Camp which is in a remote area of northwestern Kenya, is prohibitive. It’s also prohibitive to send yarn and supplies for the same reason. Elsa’s solution was and is to raise and send funds to her partners on the ground who then purchase supplies and produce dolls locally in the camp].
We started a waiting list and have been distributing toys every few months. With our next handout in early July 2024, we will have distributed around 885 toys in Kakuma.
The team members get paid for crocheting the toys and at this stage we are at a steady 20 toys per month made by three toymakers. Apart from our toymakers, we now have Khalid Kafi Mojo on board to help with administration.
[I asked Elsa what were some of the most difficult aspects of this project. As with any project that seeks to solve a problem much greater than individual and community resources allow for, the biggest and ongoing limitations from Elsa’s perspective are funding and communication].
Although we initially received some generous donations, we now very seldom get any assistance and it is challenging to keep the project going. From the team's side I think the biggest obstacles are the general hardship of day-to-day life in the camp. It takes grit and determination to bring up their families and survive in the very harsh camp environment coping with hunger, heat and illness.
Communication remains tricky and making changes or arrangements can take time and patience from all involved due to language barriers. Misunderstandings happen very easily. Google Translate and a few rounds of reverse translation help, but can still be subject to cultural misinterpretation which can take days to unravel. Internet connection problems and the time difference between Australia and Kenya adds the potential for extra delay in settling arrangements.
Elsa’s Background: Trainer, Teacher, & Facilitor
How did Elsa come to find herself working with partners in Kakuma Refugee Camp? Great question. I asked. Elsa delivered! Back to Elsa in italics.
I was born and spent my first 35 years in Africa, where I started teaching. That means I am very aware of inequality in education, resilience in the face of hardship and of how important it is to share resources to help communities to function well.
In 2020-2021 I taught three cohorts of an online teaching/facilitation course loosely based and redeveloped from material initially used in a course I wrote for the Australian Council for Education Research. In 2022 I offered some online mentorship to project leaders and to youth groups applying for funding.
Over the past two years I have also been working with Farming and Health Education (FHE) in Kakuma, providing a course in Positive Parenting which I developed to be relevant to camp circumstances. Participants received the accompanying printed booklets in either Kiswahili, English or Arabic. The course proved useful and 11 cohorts (150+ participants) completed the course co-presented by Musa Munga, a very skilled facilitator.
From 2020-2022 I helped set up the Jenga Ndoto Project in Kakuma teaming up with a local CBO to establish four equipped classrooms, including a small computer lab, and offered training to several hundred people in sewing, English and coding over a period of two years. We trained a group of women in the basics of child development and how to run a childcare center. We also offered a program exclusively for young women with classes in health, sewing, hairdressing, using computers for office administration, geography and music. English classes were available to the whole community in the area.
[This is the point at which Elsa met Matendo who was teaching handsewing at the above-mentioned training center.]
Since September 2023, I have been assisting the Children's Club (and teacher Faliala Muzaliwa) with content and other support. FHE under the leadership of Marcelin Munga is doing good work in permaculture and other fields. My commitment to them is coming to an end soon as I am moving on to less formal arrangements and assisting a few other community projects.
Elsa’s Reflections on Her Work & Achievements
I find it fascinating how ChangeMakers like Elsa manage to sustain high levels of commitment and support for projects half way round the world. She explained to me that with South Africa as her homeland she has made giving back to individuals and communities on the African continent part of her life’s purpose. How does she do it?
Helping others in practical ways continues to teach me about myself and about the incredible resilience some people show in the face of the unspeakable cruelty of humankind. I have been working on maintaining empathy even when struggling to understand some self-sabotaging behaviour which I suspect might stem from trauma. I have also had to learn to set strong boundaries to preserve my own mental and physical health. I feel very blessed to have a safe, stable home and will never take that for granted. My loving family remains my support.
When I asked her what is her greatest achievement she is proud of, naturally it was Dolls & Lions, but I note the scope of the achievement is commendable. Nearly 900 dolls! As a crochet artist myself, I know how many hours of work (and balls of yarn) that translates to → thousands!
I’m proud of being instrumental in enabling the Dolls & Lions Project team to distribute dolls and lions to almost 900 children in Kakuma Refugee Camp and providing academic mentorship and assistance when I can to serious students furthering their education despite significant obstacles. Anything that makes a tiny difference is worthwhile, although it is easy to forget that fact in the face of hardship on such a massive scale.
Her advice to aspiring ChangeMakers
My advice to young changemakers would be that your most powerful contribution is showing your community there is hope if we all stand together to genuinely and honestly support each other. That will look different for each of us, depending on our circumstances and personalities. Our strength lies in self-empowerment and allowing others to thrive through showing respect for each and every individual, regardless of age, race, gender or ability.
Who has inspired Elsa?
Elsa has a vast network of ChangeMaker friends, so it was hard for her to choose just one. She says: If I have to pick one individual that I think has had a very big impact by changing lives in Africa, it would be Selina Nkoile, a Maasai woman from Kenya. She is an anti-Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and anti-child marriage advocate that is doing incredibly powerful work.
Selina is founder and director of Nashipai Maasai Community Projects, a Community Based Organization (CBO) founded in 2017 with a vision to “promote education amongst the Mosiro community of the Maasai so as to create a society free from all forms of violence against women and children and to ensure every child is given a chance to thrive.”
There are far too many others to name all the people that inspire me! I really wish I could give a list of 20 or more. Those leaders in refugee camps and in rural Africa who put in the hard work of setting up useful programs to assist and educate their communities are all to be admired. You know who you are!
Apart from the team at Dolls & Lions, in particular Matendo, Zawadi and Khalid, I would also single out Reeth Lual, Chol Mabior and others I met through Youth Drive in Kakuma. One of their main aims is to inspire children to stay in school and they volunteer their time to do that. They are great educators and role models.
Finally, I also appreciate my parents for all of the guidance and support they gave me that makes what I do in the world today possible.
Where in the World is Elsa?
Born and raised in South Africa, Elsa now lives in Perth Australia with her husband Peter. Her two adult children live independently under the same roof. Perth is the fourth most populated city in Australia and is the capital of Western Australia. As mentioned earlier, it is known as “the most isolated big city in the world” as the next metropolis is located just over 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away [a roughly equivalent distance would be between Boston, MA and Miami, FL in the US].
What an inspiration!