This is not a very ordinary story of a young mother, who evokes a love for saigas in the hearts of old and young alike, with her handmade toys.
Her name is Natalya Sayapina, and she is a 29 year-old science teacher. However, she’s taking a break while she concentrates on being a full- time mom to her two wonderful boys, Yaroslav, who is 4.5 years old, and Ivan, who recently turned just a year old., Natalia lives in the village of Liman with her family. Not far from the Stepnoy Reserve, in which vast expanses saigas roam free all year round, under the watchful eye of their protectors.
Interested in needlework from an early age, Natalia began to knit various absolutely amazing toys for her sons: bears, bunnies, hedgehogs, for example, but Natalya wanted to create something of her own, something special, which cannot be found anywhere else.
As the head of the school’s local history club, Natalia helped children understand the basics of biological diversity of their native land, learn more about animals that are listed in the Red Book of Russia, but mainly about those animals and birds that live in their native Liman region.
But recently, after reading an article in a local newspaper, and seeing a story on TV about the Stepnoy Wildlife Sanctuary and its inhabitants – saigas, as Natalya says, cute and unusual animals that touched her heart very much, she got the idea to create a Saiga toy. She decided that the toys would show everyone that this is a completely unique animal, similar to a fairytale elf, who came into our lives from the depths of centuries, and requires the most care and protection we can afford it.
In this way the first saigas appeared in the lives of two little boys – Yaroslav and Ivan – future defenders of all living things on Earth.
Natalya decided that through these knitted saiga toys, more and more residents and visitors to the Astrakhan region will learn about saigas. By distributing such toys, attracting the attention of both adults and children, you can help preserve this amazing animal, which is illegally hunted by greedy, profit-hungry people.
We now have 20 of these new saigas for sale in our shop, so don’t miss out and order yours today.