Building Life-skills for 150,000 children

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.

• We set up 76 new play Impact Centres, bringing the power of play to 7,782 children
• 5,500 children from the existing Toybank centres around India received fresh games & toys
• 870 children got to take their favorite toy home through our distribution events
• Toybank sensitized 100 adults and children through Power of Play sensitization Workshops held at schools, colleges and even Corporate offices
• 8 new impact centres were opened for 1,669 children in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
• Toybank volunteers ran in the Mumbai Marathon to raise public awareness about our organization.

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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We have been propagating The Right to Play for the last 11 years... standing by the simple philosophy that "It's easier to Build Strong Children than to Repair Broken Men". These last few months have been rather exciting as we have had some fabulous case studies coming through from the field.

But first, what did we do and how busy were we! Here we go:

• Toybank sensitized 376 young adults through  a Power of Play Sensitization Workshops held at schools, colleges and even Corporate offices
• 10,585 children received access to massive Play Impact Centers across Urban Bombay & Rural Maharashtra from September through November
• 3013 children from the existing Toybank centers received fresh games & toys
• 2122 children got to take his/her favorite toy home through our distribution events
• Over 77 teachers went through Toybank's Power of Play Training sessions & thus learnt how to use the Toy libraries to ensure maximum impact for each child that uses these centers

We opened a large Impact Center that caters to children who have been rehabilitated from Sex trafficking. This was one of Toybank's most important assignments as it not only catered to over 2500 children alone but by setting up our largest Toy library at their 17 centers; we have ensured that the children do not get back into this racket. Not only this, this Impact Center is attracting many other children from the vicinity to join these centers and thus have a more secure environment to spend their time at.

We have been tracking these centers closely and we are very pleased to see the change being driven so consistently through our Impact Centers.

7-year old Tushar studies at a local Municipal School. His mother is concerned that he is not talking and is very quiet for his age. Tushar is 7 years old and can say about 100 words that his parents can understand, but are not clear. He points and gestures to get what he wants and has some temper tantrums when he is not understood.

His father thinks that Tushar is a late talker like he was. He thinks Tushar will talk when he is ready. But his mother has noticed that his 4 -year old sister is already talking, Reading words and saying a few words and exclamations. This is something Tushar did not do at the same age.

Once Tushar starting coming to the Toybank center at this Municipal School, he started opening up. He began to follow instructions given by his parents or teachers at the School. He is now very interactive with his parents and engages easily with other children, playing mostly alongside his peers, but showing some cooperative play. He particularly likes to play with sand and he gets excited when the sand table is opened up for play. But through play he was engaged in the mathematical and alphabetical games. He learned Math very well and is also speaking better.

And we received some super feedback too!

“It was really an amazing and fulfilling experience to be a part of the Toybank initiative and moreover for the two hours of happiness spent with the kids at the school. Surely I want to be part of many more such events which will be imprinted in my memory and cherished forever.” - Swasti Singh (Volunteer)

“It was so much fun to meet such a bunch of enthusiastic kids! We went with lots of toys and came back with hearts full of joy. Every Toybank activity has been an incredibly enriching and wonderful experience.”- Sheetal Vanwari (Volunteer)

 We are looking forward to the coming months especially the New Year which always brings positive hopes for better times. We hope that the children of the world be liberated & free from all forms of evil & simply get to be kids again.

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