One for the soft-hearted souls: Meet the plush pals adoption agency making a positive difference
Posted on
Adopt a pal, help the planet—it’s the simple concept behind this adorable business helping children in poverty.
Preventing soft toys from going to landfill while raising funds for children in need, Soft Darlings is the cutest new addition to the Pearce Crafters Market and a passion project of Micaela Centenera, the founder of Good Humans Journal—an charitable initiative dedicated to sending Boxes of Hope to impoverished girls in the Philippines.
Working with the Days for Girls charity (a non-for-profit organisation that the bespoke Pearce Crafters Market also supports by donating half of all of their proceeds) to mail re-useable sanitary products to those in need, for each adopted plushie, Micaela sends a toy and other essentials to a child living in poverty, using all of the profits to pay for the postage for her Boxes of Hope.
“I’m sending about 14 big boxes a month to the Philippines, which is a good problem to have but the shipping is what gets us,” she says.
“While the markets are great and they do bring in some revenue for shipping, it’s not just for my shipping—it’s also for Days for Girls packages going to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, a few locations in Africa, and also for Indigenous communities in Australia.”
Inspired by the Good Humans Journal and Pearce Crafters Market ethos of being sustainable, the idea for Soft Darlings came to Micaela after looking at the abundance of soft toy donations she receives.
“Usually, they’re not the priority because we focus on medicine, clothing, footwear, and the Days for Girls kits…plush toys make up a really high amount of landfill. People buy them all the time for kids, and then kids outgrow them. Even now, op-shops don’t take that many of them because they don’t have the facilities to clean them or patch them up,”
“I take them to what we call the Beauty Parlour, and they get fixed up, cleaned up, and fully sanitised so when I sell them, they’re in good condition.”
Launching the business during the July Pearce Crafters Market, Micaela isn’t just selling the cuddly friends to raise money—she’s also dedicated to helping them all find a new, loving home.
View this post on Instagram
Cleaning them up, naming them (with the help of her five-year-old son) giving them a birthday, and individually writing each soft toy a bio as well as hand sewing them a blanket and pillow from fabric offcuts—saving the material from landfill and so they can travel in comfort—she says Soft Darlings is not just for children, with many soft-hearted adults walking away with a new pal.
“The kids come up and they love things like Squishmallows and the new toys and then you have men and women come up and they really appreciate the older style teddy bears from their youth,” she says.
“There’s something about a plush toy that really strikes a chord with people.”
With plans to eventually start having Soft Darlings available for adoption via Instagram, Micaela is always looking for donations of all kinds—from clothing and shoes to more soft toys to send to the Philippines. And if you can’t donate, more hands to pack boxes go a long way.
But as she continues to work towards a future where children are safe, happy, and healthy, she says that she hopes Soft Darlings not only makes people feel good but also sparks a conversation about what’s happening around the world and what can be done to make a difference.
“My in-laws are from the Philippines, and I’ve travelled over there quite a few times now. I’ve had the pleasure of being invited to a girl’s rescue centre a few times—you have to be invited, you can’t just turn up because there’s very, very high security—and seen first-hand the struggles of the people over there,” Micaela says.
“Once you see it, it’s hard to go back to not knowing. You can’t ‘unknow’ that information and how people are living…The more that people know about it, the more that they want to help and if that means they get to buy a soft toy and that’s helping, they can feel good about doing something and having something.”
“I just want people to be aware of what’s going on.”
Keep an eye out for Soft Darlings at the Christmas Pearce Crafters Market or for more information visit @soft.darlings.
