Amaral Carvalho Hospital is a reference on the treatment of cancer in Latin America. For children undergoing treatment, isolation can hurt more than any physical pain. They are pulled from their normal routine and away from friends and family for their low defenses. To help shorten this distance, inspired by classic teddy bears (symbolic companion of children), we developed a special line of bears that receive and play audio notes from WhatsApp sent from family and friends everytime children press the teddy’s hand. They were named “ELO” (means “LINK”) for linking hospitalized children with the love they miss from home. The ELOs made a huge impact on the kids and their families, and when the project’s video was posted on the hospital’s fanpage it became one of the most shared videos in Brazil. It made headlines on every tv channel, newspaper, site national and internationally. As it gained the world, Brazil’s Minister of Health said “it’s one of the most sensitive things he’s ever seen as a health professional ” and all the way from Silicon Valley, WhatsApp founder said “to see whatsapp help people in such an inspirational way is why he gets up and go to work everyday”.

The ELOs were developed in partnership with a non-allergic pillow and toys manufacturer and brought to the kids in the hospital. They were brought to the hospital and given to all the kids isolated for treatment. It’s an ongoing project, that started in March 2014 and has no date to end. In fact, after all the visibility of the project, many companies have offered to sponsor the production of new ELOs and make them available in other hospitals around the country and even in Europe.

Aside from bringing enormous happiness and relieve to both the children and their families, the ELOs became an international phenomenon. The project brought an unseen visibility for the hospital with a calculated U$7 million in earned media nationally and internationally. It impacted over 60 million people on social networks alone and became a medical benchmark for hospitals throughout the country and abroad, being written about in medical and health publications in different countries.