By Suhit Kelkar | Project Leader
Since 2004, Toybank has been giving the lesser-privileged children the chance to rediscover their childhood and to gain the cognitive and social benefits of play. And it’s been possible thanks to generous donors like you. At Toybank, we believe in keeping you in the loop always. So here’s a wrap-up of our activities for the period December 2015 to January 2016.
In these two months, here is how Toybank put your donations to use.
These were the numbers. Now we’d like to share a story with you. It’s always heartening for us to hear about individual children, because that is where the dramatic results of our work make themselves apparent. Meet Shubham, whose story makes us especially proud.
Shubham, 12 years old, lives with his parents and his two brothers in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra state. His parents are itinerant cloth sellers, who earn just about enough money to make ends meet. They belong to the Gondhali community, among which the prevalence of education is generally low. Such is the problem with Shubham’s family. The atmosphere in Shubham’s home is not conducive to learning. On the personal front, too, Shubham had challenges to meet. When Shubham first came to the Toybank centre, he did not have any desire to learn; besides, he also had issues with bad behaviour.
In 2015, Toybank had set up a fully-fledged impact centre at an NGO partner’s premises. He began to play games on his own. At first, he would leave one game half-finished and take up another one. Then, with encouragement from the local faculty, he would ensure that he completed one game before taking up another one. He began to tackle puzzles, including numerical ones, with relative ease. Then he even began to attempt more difficult puzzles. Motivated to complete each puzzle, he successfully overcame his lack of concentration.
The toys and games had a transformative effect on his personality as well. Having regained the sense of being a child through play, he improved his behavior. He became an outgoing, smiling boy again.
Moreover, the opportunity to play with toys and games persuaded Shubham to come to the impact centre regularly. This allowed our NGO partner to teach Shubham on a regular basis. On his part, Shubham became keen to learn, because he knew that he could play only when he had studied properly. Thus, our impact centre managed to make learning fun for Shubham, and restored to him his sense of being a child, as his behavioural changes would indicate.
His is a textbook case study illustrating the truly transformative benefits of toys and games, and is a vindication of Toybank’s approach. And it is you who made it possible through your act of generosity. Will you continue with us on this journey of giving?
Consider making another donation for us through Global Giving, so we can bring the Right to Play to more children. As we usher in a new year, we at Toybank remain committed to our ideal of putting a toy or game in the hands of each child in the world. And we would love it if you came along for the journey.
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By Shweta Chari | Project Leader
By Shweta Chari | Project Leader
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