Just a few weeks after I did a group picture of my eleven Hearts for Hearts dolls, I've finally found the last missing member--Surjan!
I'm absolutely floored by how gorgeous she is. She shares a face mold with Tipi from Laos, but everything else is different. Her eyes are a pretty shade of hazel, and her brown hair is long and wavy. Like other Hearts for Hearts Girls, Surjan is beautifully dressed and has lots of sweet little details. She has gold earrings, a gold nose ring, and a pretty gold bracelet. These purple flats aren't her original shoes, which she is missing, and which I intend to reproduce.
Part of what I like about these dolls is their backstories, which talk about their lives and sometimes their struggles. But their stories always focus on how the girls are changing the world, one heart at a time. Surjan's story, though, is very bleak. She is from Nepal, a country situated between China and India, in the Himalaya mountains. Her family is very poor, and when her father can't find work, he sells Surjan to a rug weaving factory, takes the money, and abandons his family. Surjan must work long, difficult days to pay back the debt. But one day, a stranger named Gubal approaches her and tells her that not only is it illegal for children to work in factories, but that she can offer a glimmer of hope--escaping to a new life in the capital city of Kathmandu.
