From a very early age, the heart of the Kuwaiti young woman, Ghadeer Al-Shirazi, clung to the "rebon" dolls that simulate children, when she was sitting to watch a British friend of her mother's drafting a model of a child during their stay in the United Kingdom.

This scene remained with Al-Shirazi - who spoke to Al-Jazeera Net - until she reached the age of 16, and to satisfy the desire to refine her talent, she had to accompany the British artist, which was what it was.

Demands poured in on Shirazi of all ages to make dolls that resemble them (Al-Jazeera)

A unique gift

After graduating from high school, Al-Shirazi returned to Kuwait and her bag is filled with materials such as vinyl (a plastic material) and silicone, as well as coatings for making the rebon doll.

After that, she received an invitation from one of her relatives to attend her birthday, and she wanted to give her a unique gift, so she made a doll for her, and that was the first test of the skills she had acquired in doll making.

The audience appreciated the action of Al-Shirazi, and the signs of exclamation and astonishment raised their features, and with it, questions flooded her about the nature of this doll that they had never seen before.

Al-Shirazi took her hobby, which she learned in Britain, to Kuwait and attracted many fans (Al-Jazeera)

Doll acquisition

The admiration and welcome received by the Shirazi dolls prompted her sister to persuade her to open an account on the social networking site "Instagram" to showcase her talent for making Ribon dolls.

The site was very popular with fans of Shirazi who admired her blood and wanted to acquire her, which prompted her to fulfill purchase orders by expanding her business, becoming the first Kuwaiti and Arab in the Middle East to specialize in such an industry.

Over time, she became a target for Kuwaiti, Gulf and Arab television stations that hosted her to explain the details of her hobby, and she began to see her blood in the series one by one after the production companies used these dolls instead of real babies, whom Shirazi says is that their presence in the arms of their mothers is more important than their presence on the filming sites.

Through her participation in Gulf conferences and workshops, she won awards and scholarships, but preferred to complete the study of English literature in Kuwait.

Shirazi does not need more than a picture of a person as a child to make a doll that resembles him at the age of 9 months (Al-Jazeera)

9 months old

Shirazi does not need more than a picture of a person as a child, to create a doll that resembles him when he was 9 months old.

But what is surprising about the young woman is the requests she received from grandmothers who wanted to have dolls that would help them feel better after all of their sons and daughters were married, as well as other grandmothers who were attracted by the hobby of collecting dolls.

It takes Al-Shirazi 3 full months to make a sculpted doll, so it goes through its various stages, starting from sculpting and ending with hair transplantation, one by one.

As for the ready-made "vinyl" molds, it takes about a month to complete the doll according to it.

Making these dolls requires special materials to reach the realistic stage, so it starts from clay and its molds if the doll is sculpted, or silicone in order to become soft and almost real, apart from the colors needed to complete the work.

The Kuwaiti inventor brings these materials from Germany and the United States, and says that they cost exorbitant sums, but because she is a customer of the specialized companies, she was able to obtain a special treatment for the delivery of these materials to her country.

Al-Shirazi established with her friends the "One" volunteer group and repaired several destroyed schools in Zanzibar (Al-Jazeera)

Once for charity

The young woman decided to allocate a percentage of her profits to charitable work. She also formed with her friends a group called "One" that travels to areas of need in many countries of the world.

One of these visits targeted Zanzibar to restore dilapidated schools, and was filled with happiness when seeing children return to school after the renovation of their abandoned schools.

The scene of amputees in Zanzibar opened Qarihah Al-Shirazi to more humanitarian work, so she decided to allocate part of the proceeds from its sales to help children whose families were unable to provide the necessary sums to compensate them with artificial limbs.

To help them, this inventor used to make limbs that simulate their real ones from the materials she uses in making Ribon dolls, and customizes them for free to those in need from the age of 9 months to 7 years.

Before Corona, Shirazi used to travel to those in need in their countries, due to her need to inspect the child and obtain the measurements before starting the process of forming the artificial limb he needed.

However, this crisis prevented that and devoted its efforts to helping the needy in Kuwait.

The "Once" volunteer group in Zanzibar and is mediated by Shirazi (Al-Jazeera)

Humanitarian cases

The young woman tells Al-Jazeera Net how she was able to help a Kuwaiti child who was bullied by his peers in the classroom after losing one of his fingers and becoming ashamed of using the pen, and his educational level declined as he hated school and did not want to go to it.

The alternate finger simulating the real, which Al-Shirazi made, restored his confidence in himself, so he loved his school again and established relations with his peers based on the friendliness and fun usual among children.

Al-Shirazi is currently working to help a Syrian child who lost a limb due to the ongoing war in his country, and she is anxiously waiting for the Corona crisis to subside, so that she can extend a helping hand to many children, including Palestinians who lost their limbs.

Al-Shirazi is currently working on extending a helping hand to many children, including those who have lost their limbs (Al-Jazeera)

Dalal

In memory of her sister Dalal, who passed away a year ago after suffering with cancer, the Kuwaiti inventor is working on making a doll that bears the features of her sister when she was young.

A specialized German company liked the idea, so it bought the property rights to the doll "Dalal" in preparation for selling it internationally. Shirazi plans to allocate part of it to children suffering from cancer as an incentive for them to receive the necessary treatment.