A Beautiful Day for Toybankers in Delhi!

Toybankers in Delhi had an awesome toy distribution event in Gurgaon yesterday. This was our 3rd event in Delhi/NCR and we reached out to 35 children from the NewLife Aanganwadi.

During some of our events we have observed that since all volunteers don't make it on time, either due to traffic jams or because they are new to the area around the venue, we don't make most of the orientation meetings due to time constraints.

Yesterday, we had a different scene altogether. Most of our volunteers reached on time and so we had a really good volunteer orientation meet. We thank all the 7 volunteers, out of which 6 of them volunteered with us for the first time! 

Children arrived and settled down in their classroom - a huge tree in the slum colony, opposite a very posh Hamilton Court, DLF Phase 4, Gurgaon. They sat down with their books and bags on the mats and after sometime started the event with a prayer.

We wanted to do something different during this event. So instead of the usual song-dance, we brought in Kho-Kho. Yes! We taught all the children how to play Kho-Kho, thanks to the open area around their classroom we had hell of a time! 

Catch all the Kho-Kho action here!

We thank the donor Fatima Pais, Senior Manager - Corporate Communications, Ericsson who sponsored the Parle-G biscuit packs for the children. She's been our donor for the first event too. Thanks Fatima for your continuous support!

 

Volunteers and the children really enjoyed playing Kho-Kho and this really formed a good start to the day! We went on hear some really good and funny rhymes too.

 

We thank the employee toy donors from IBM for their generous toy donations. It was a beautiful day for all of us at Toybank.

NGO Speak:

Here's what Roli from NewLife had to say after the event:

"It was indeed a great experience to have your team come to Anganwadi, Gurgaon. All the kids enjoyed your presence and the gifts/toys you brought for them. I would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to Swetha and the entire team for having a heart and passion towards the under privileged children of Anganwadi at DLF, Gurgaon. Once again, would like to convey my heartiest love and thanks to the entire Toybank for their unparalleled support and would like to have a long lasting relationship with your organization."

Volunteer Speak:
Here are a few experiences and moments shared by our volunteers:

Aseem Singla, a volunteer who's been with us at two of our events in Delhi/NCR :

"A warm thanks to you for giving all of us such an opportunity to work for a social cause especially the cheerful childhood of desolate faces. We are getting vibrant and enthusiastic event by event and experienced too :). I don't think there was any gap left unbridged in our last event on Saturday. We really did well, got properly engaged with others and above all, children were actively involved in each and every activity.

Wishing all the family members of Toybank a very good luck and heartiest wishes for DIWALI." 

Jayant,  a first time volunteer at Toybank:

"The event was organized very well.I am  very much grateful to all of you for your contribution to such a wonderful event.For me, I started my volunteering again and first time in NCR." 

Nitin, a first time volunteer at Toybank:
"Imagine when you were a child and your parents surprised you with a new toy. Your joy would knew no bounds.That's how the kids of Aanganwadi felt when they were gifted with toys and I could regain my childhood days when I used to get toys as gifts from my known ones. Spending time with the kids of varying age was a great experience and I could regain my childhood rhymes which our parents and teachers taught us.It was fun playing kho kho and listening to their soft voice and seeing their shyness on face, which came when they were brought infront of others to recite a song or a rhyme. Hearing their likes and dislikes, their goals in life- some want to be teacher,some doctor, some like hindi and some english as their favorite subjects but one thing was common among all: everyone liked playing and after gifting them toys, the happiness that came on their faces was worth seeing.

I wish I were a child again to enjoy these moments of playing with toys . I really liked being a part of this get together with kids of Aanganwadi and would definitely like to get involved in future activities of Toybank. I would like to thank Swetha for giving me this opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful event with touched my heart deeply and I believe that its duty of each and everyone of us to help the needful in whatever ways that is possible and within our reach. I hope we can get more and more people involved in volunteering activities and spread this noble cause to not just Gurgaon or Delhi but to every part of the country so that no child remains deprived of a toy which is his
right to have."

Pravesh, a first time volunteer at Toybank:
"It was great meeting all of you at Anganwadi yesterday.  It was my first event I attended in Gurgaon. Playing kho kho with the children was indeed a lot of fun! Also, I have attended some social events before where books and clothes (Goonj!) were distributed to children but the best part was the cheerful faces I saw when they were opening their toys. Yo Toybank!"