RUFUS THE BEAR TRAVELS GAUTENG
The Story of Jane O'Brien &
Rufus the Bear for SA Children with Diabetes
30 January 2003
Teddy bears are a passion of mine, and when I spotted Rufus on the Internet, I just believed that I was meant to arrange and coordinate his travels here in SA. Over the past 9 months I have really enjoyed doing this, as I feel that perhaps I am contributing, in some small way, to making life a little easier and happier for the children with diabetes. Because I am not in the medical field and therefore able to help from that angle, I enjoy being able to share my love of Teddies, and in a way repay the help we have been given, by doing this. I receive so much pleasure from hearing positive feedback from Mom's that it makes the job of being Rufus' travel agent all worth while.
My son Richard was diagnosed with Diabetes in April 2002. I was hungry for information, as I am sure all parents are when faced with this diagnosis, and so I went to the Internet to find what I was looking for. Almost immediately I came across the wonderful 'Children with Diabetes' web site where I read about these cute teddy bears travelling around the USA. I suppose I was automatically drawn to Rufus as I am a teddy bear artist and a keen arctophile, and so I contacted the lady in Michigan USA who coordinates the travels of 10 Rufus and 6 Ruby bears and enquired if it was possible if we could have a Rufus here in SA. They were very excited that this would be the first Rufus bear to leave the shores of USA, and he arrived in SA 10 days later!
The initial concept was the idea of 8 year old Colleen Crowley of Bronxville, New York and her mother, Rita. Parents who participate in online support through Children With Diabetes web site learned of the Crowley's idea, asked if their families could participate, and a formal plan for Rufus' travels was underway. 9 Rufus bears and 6 Ruby bears are now on an excursion that will ultimately span four continents and visit well over a hundred families with Type 1 diabetes.
Rufus measures 40cm in height, is caramel in colour, and has brightly coloured felt patches on all the possible insulin injection sites. He wears a medic-alert bracelet advising that he has diabetes and is dressed in a t-shirt and corduroy dungarees. Over time he has collected a South African flag sewn to his trousers, a badge from the Friends for Life conference in Pasadena which he attended in July, and a sugarbird lapel pin from SADA (now Diabetes SA). He travels with his bright green suitcase in which he carries his journal/diary and extra warm clothing which he has also collected along the way from kind families who thought he may suffer from the cold!
Interested families may contact me via phone, e-mail or fax giving me their names, the name and age of the child with diabetes, their contact telephone numbers, their e.mail address and their home address. When I receive this information, I will add their name to the waiting list. Up until now, I have simply just added their name to the end of the list because all the host families have been in the Sandton/Randburg area, and it has not been difficult passing him on. Perhaps later on I will have to coordinate his travels by area or province, and then the waiting period may be longer.
The idea is that he should spend between 7 and 10 days with a family. During this time they generally try to do interesting and exciting things with Rufus, and most of the children take him to their schools. In this way, he is making it easier for the children to share information and experiences with their classmates and hopefully lessen the ignorance of diabetes in the general community. It also has helped the very young children with insulin injections, as they have a chance to give Rufus an injection before injecting themselves and in this way the tensions around injecting times are lessened.
We ask the families to document his stay in the diary, and add photographs if possible too. This journal entry then needs to either be faxed or e-mailed to me, so that I can forward it to Children with Diabetes so that they can update their web page and then everyone world-wide can follow his travels. This obviously means that hosts will have to have access to either e-mail or fax. I will advise each family of the name and contact details of the next hosts in line, and between them they must organize to either deliver or fetch Rufus from one another. In this way hopefully more and more people will get to know one another and share similar experiences and offer support to one another. If Rufus is to leave the province or travel a considerable distance, then the host family that he is leaving will need to pack him and his belongings up in a post-friendly box and post him off to his next port of call. This could cost in the region of approx. R35.00 for insured postage plus the cost of packaging. Host families must be prepared for the fact that it is purely the 'luck of the draw' whether or not they will need to post him off and subsequently incur these costs.
Rufus will be in SA for as long as we need him, returning to me at the end so that I can forward him home to USA, but we really hope that he will have enough host families to last him until he is totally worn out - literally! There really is no limit to the age group - we have had children from 18 months up to 16 years, and even an adult who has had him to stay. At the moment he is booked up until around about the middle of June 2003, but I receive requests every week, so this changes often.
The ultimate purpose of this exercise it to bring together as many families as possible who have been touched by diabetes and to let them know that they are not alone in their day to day struggle to keep control. We also hope that Rufus will spread love and comfort to the little children who find it so hard to cope with the daily testing and insulin injections.
It is obviously imperative that I know at all times where Rufus is, and one of the problems I encountered was when one host family passed him on without my knowledge, resulting in the unfair delay in him reaching the other people on the waiting list. Another unfortunate fact is that some children make him incredibly dirty with his fur rather matted, (perhaps from over-zealous feeding or Rover having a go at him!), but I hope to have alleviated these problems by enclosing a list of 'do's and don'ts' in his suitcase.
Tel: (011) 315-2061
Cel: 082 4599731
Fax: (011) 805-0277
E-mail: jaylin@netactive.co.za
Regards,
JANE O'BRIEN