Paws for thought…

Colm Fitzpatrick learns about the secrets of the Pooja bears

Some children’s books find their origins in mythical stories where good overcomes evil, or perhaps in the endearing antics of an animated cartoon character, but a new book that is captivating children throughout Ireland and afar has found its inspiration from the floors of a local Church.

The Secret of the Pooja Bears is a short, colourful book sharing the story of the Pooja Bears who have lived in St Michael’s Church, Enniskillen since 1875. Don’t fret too much, as the bears are ingrained into the floorboards of the Church, composed of three black marks creating two eyes and one nose.

The book is the brainchild of the Chair of Galway European Capital of Culture 2020 and a Trustee of the Carnegie UK Trust Aideen McGinley and her youngest granddaughter Lucia, who initially came up with the idea while attending Mass.

“I used to bring her to Mass… and one day I looked down and I thought what’s that there on the floor and I said to Lucia ‘What’s that?’ and she said ‘Nana, it’s a bear’, as if to say ‘How could you not know it was a bear’,” Aideen says, describing the origins of the book.

Revelation

Following this revelation, Aideen rounded up her family members, went to the Church and counted 221 bears on the floorboards, subsequently asking Msgr Peter O’Reilly for permission to write the book.

Using these creative bears to string a narrative, Aideen also wanted to dedicate the book to two charities of personal importance to her, The Aisling Centre and Habitat for Humanity.

The Aisling Centre promotes positive mental health and emotional well-being. Adults and children come to the Centre at difficult times in their lives, many in distress and despair. At the Centre they can find hope and healing in a welcoming, safe and supportive environment.

Alongside being a member of the Board of Directors for the Aisling Centre, Aideen also volunteered with Habitat which partners families to build or improve their home.

“I went with Habitat for Humanity last year and I was very taken by the children and the small simple things that meant so much to them, their positive attitude despite circumstances that they were living in so when I got back I just thought to myself it was getting harder and harder for charities to fundraise”, she says.

Charity

Her work with Habitat directly inspired the title of the book as the name Pooja references a little girl whose home was built by the charity.

“Where the word Pooja came from was, we were looking at names, we thought like Prayer Bears or what we would call the bears, and that was too close to Care Bears, and literally that day I received a beautiful little video on the Habitat website, and it’s all about a little girl called Pooja who lived in Bwana (India) which was the camp that I was in. And Pooja is the Sanskrit for prayer,” Aideen explains adding that there was a “real synchronicity” to it.

The book describes the experiences of some of the Pooja bears, be it losing and regaining a singing voice, or mischievously snuffing out the Church candles.

As Aideen wanted the book to have a moral to it, and a pause for thought, it concludes with the Pooja Bear Hugging Game which provides children with the opportunity to talk about the “day that has been and what is to come tomorrow”.

This emulates her own parenting experience where she would sit down with her daughter at the end of the day and ask her what she achieved and what she was happy about. She adds that there is also a “challenge” for adults in the book as things aren’t always as they seem, referencing the difficulties parents and grandparents can have in trying to see the bears.

Following the success of the book, Aideen thought that selling a real knitted bear with the book could be another source of revenue to raise further funds for the charity, resulting in more employment in India.

“Children could buy them and have them with the book, so it’s taken us a little bit of time but only last week we’ve seen the prototype of the bear and we’ve ordered our first 100. The idea is people will buy the bears and we’re creating employment in India and kids will have the book and the bear. So that’s for this Christmas, we’ll see how those go and hopefully that will be another income stream, Aideen says.

Already the book has made an important impact in India as the Habitat team ventured back to where Aideen was volunteering and gave one of the books to a boy called Samir, who is pictured within.

“Apparently his mother was in tears that her little boy was in a book and all the kids were just running around touching the book, because there was a story that had them in it,” she says.

Families and people across Ireland are also benefitting from the message of the book, as Aideen gives workshops talking about the how the bears are relevant to each person’s life.

“I’ve done workshops in libraries and with primary schools and in prison – I did the open prison down in Leitrim with prisoners. So, there’s a message for an awful lot of people; because the prisoners one was really profound.

“I was saying to them if you have an idea, do it, just try it and don’t always think that what you see is what’s there,” Aideen says, adding that there’s a number of audiences but children especially “love” the book because of its picture format.

Despite her initial nervousness about producing the book, Aideen says she has been given a lot of support, through her family, friends and other media outlets.

“There’s this thing about somebody coming out and writing a book about bears and floorboards. I thought they’re going to think I’m absolutely mad. The response has been phenomenal. Even yesterday, somebody came over a thanked me for the book because they said I use it every night,” she says.

Given the success of the book, Aideen says she won’t be stopping any time soon as writing it has given her the confidence to pursue further ideas. For example, another book she is entertaining relates to a daily prayer she says and she hopes for her idea to be realised in the near future.

“It’s showed me that it is something that I can do. It’s started me down that track,” she says.

Having already raised €7,000, Aideen hopes that the book, alongside further initiatives will allow more money to be raised, meaning that children will be securely housed in impoverished regions across the world, and Enniskillen’s Aisling Centre will be able to provide it’s excellent counselling, psychotherapy and well-being service.

For more information about the charities see, http://www.theaislingcentre.com/ and https://www.habitatni.co.uk/poojabear. Alongside the Habitat website, a copy of the book can also be purchased on https://www.amazon.co.uk/