Toybank partnered with Deloitte for 3 Toy Distribution events!
Deloitte had a three week long Toy Collection Drive in their office and partnered with Toybank to reach out to 300 children in different NGOS in Mumbai and to set up Play centres at one of the NGO.
Deloitte donated almost 400 toys at Toybank to reach out to the lesser privileged kids and set up a Play Centre.
Toybankers and Deloitte Volunteers got together on the 10th of June to sort and wrap the toy collection and were all ready by the second half of the day to go to the various NGOs to have fun with the kids and to distribute the lovely toy gifts to the kids!
Here’s what Elsa, one of our Toybanker, has to say about the Toy wrapping event at Deloitte:
“On the 10th of June, 2011 the Deloitte office was buzzing with people dressed in blue shirts with batches of their impact day, running here and there busy with some work or the other. There was a lot of excitement, I could see smiles on their faces, the joy of giving something back to the community.
The session started with Shweta taking the Deloitte Volunteers on a journey of origin & evolution of Toybank, which included the vision and mission of Toybank and why it does, what it does. The short presentation gave a lot of information about ground realities of the children in India as well as the world and briefed the volunteers as to how Toybank works. A video describing the two totally different circumstances in which children live was shown, this video clip showed the disparity between the privileged and the lesser-privileged children of India. This sensitized the volunteers towards the issues of Child Rights and to the ground reality in general.
The presentation played an important role in helping the Deloitte volunteers realize the importance of what they were doing .The Q&A session helped them to understand better, clear their doubts, about how Toybank functions and the volunteering opportunities available at Toybank. It also oriented them about the way they should behave with the kids on the field, Shweta explained with examples from her own experiences. After this Farnaza oriented them to the different NGO’s that were to be visited that day.”
Toybank and Deloitte Volunteers visited 3 NGOS on the 10th of June to have a fun origami and a card making session with the children at each NGO. The volunteer force and Toybankers were divided into 3 groups and they sorted and wrapped the toys age wise for all the 3 NGOs.
After the long wrapping session all of us had a quick lunch and then resumed to our groups to get going for each of our destinations...At 12.00pm all the groups were set to go to each of their NGOs in a bus loaded with toys!
Here are the 3 NGOs we visited…
Ashadeep Association - A charitable organization working since 1976 for the very poor and needy single parent children, orphans, handicapped and widows. They execute their activities through 7 day care centers located within the western suburbs of Mumbai. Ashadeep help the children with food, education and clothing, without separating them from their parent and their environment they are used to.
Snehasadan -Snehasadan is a non-governmental Organisation that provides homes to the homeless street children in Mumbai. Over the past 4 decades Snehasadan has provided homes to 20,000 children. These homes give them a chance to escape the street life and gain access to shelter, education and a bright future.
Mumbai Mobile Creche, Powai - Toybank has a long-term tie-up with the Mumbai Mobile Creche. These MMCs provides comprehensive childcare and educational services for migrant construction workers’ children between the ages of 0-12 to ensure their healthy development and growth.
Here’s what Elsa our Toybanker, had to say when she visited Ashadeep Association for the Distribution event:
“We were warmly welcomed by Mr.Santosh and were introduced to the staff and teachers. The children were divided into 5 groups according to different age groups and the volunteers accordingly were allotted different age groups. We started with teaching the children origami designs. The children were step by step assisted and taught how to make a crab, hat, and a bird. The children were all excited to learn this. The origami was followed by another hour of card making, in which the children were taught how to make pop up cards.
After these sessions the children were distributed the gifts. The event was very well organized and coordinated .All the Toybankers and each member of the Deloitte volunteer force did their bit and could be seen enjoying too, and the smiles on the childrens' faces showed that this event was a great success!
Thank you Toybank, for always giving me these kind of wonderful opportunities to do my part for the community.”
We also got some amazing feedback from our Deloitte Toybankers :-) :-)
Here's the feedback from Deloitte Toybankers who visited Ashadeep Assocation:
Sandeep Sethi: We all would agree that as kids few of the things which fascinated us, and even our kids, the most are ‘Toys’, ‘Chocolates’, ‘bicycle’, ‘games’ etc. There are many parents, unlike us, who cannot afford proper education, food for their kids. The thought of ‘toys’, ‘chocolates’, ‘bikes’, ‘X-Box’, ‘WII’ are like fairytale stories for their kids. It sounds strange but the world we live in has many “uncovered truth beyond our senses” or “truth we don’t want to hear or see and are very much ignorant of”. According to me, under such circumstances the thought of having a ‘Toybank’ for kids, who cannot afford many basic things in life, is unique and out of the box. This unique thought made me contribute something for the noble cause but I still think my contribution should be beyond few toys and one day of service to them. The presentation by the toybank organization was really touching and made me realize the worth of being privileged. So far, in life, the gift packing/wrapping was only for friends or friends of my kids but this day was devoted to bring smiles to kids I had never met. The experience of meeting them at ‘Ashadeep’ was really amazing. They were very bright, mingled like any other kid, were enthusiastic, eager to learn and have fun. In fact, they taught us few things which I was unaware of – yeah, probably we are too old to be a kid now! As the day was concluding, their eyes were eagerly waiting for the surprise - toys we had for them. Possessing toys really brought the joy to their life and the moment was worth remembering. We finally said ‘good bye’, but I don’t think this is the final one as I would certainly think of connecting with them often. Also, I would spread the word in community about such a bank which keeps currency as ‘TOYS’ that can be visited
Ketul Odich: "I want to play…..", this was the feeling I had when I saw the smile on these kids faces. It was one of the very good experiences I had for the community work. We all are blessed to have played with such toys during our childhood days and I really appreciate the thought process laid down by the Toybank group. The guidance and their small tips (Toybank rules) were very very practical and I would remember them for lifetime!
Here are some heart-touching experiences of Deloitte Toybankers who visited Snehasadan:
Seema Joshi: TOYBANK…. Reemphasized the RIGHT to play for every child. Toys are such integral part of growing and learning. Snehsadan was a wonderful experience! Seeing the smile on children’s face was the most satisfying feeling, I was happy to be part of Toybank. The efforts, sincerity and dedication of Toybank volunteers is commendable. I would say, come and experience being a toybanker, you would gain more than you'd give!
Sachin Nikam: I had gone to Sneha Sadan as a part of Toybank initiative on Deloitte’s Impact day. Visiting Sneha Sadan and bonding with the kids there was a different experience for me.
There were kids right from the age of 4 years to 13 years. Surprisingly when I went there, I found the kids to be really well behaved. They were really organized and followed the instructions with ease. We had a session of origami with them and kids took up to it instantly. I must admit some of them were really better than me when it came to origami and were able to develop special things out of nothing.
The most heartfelt experience was with a kid who could not hear but he used to follow his other mates and just came up with an impressive sketch. The smile on the face of each kid after they completed their sketches just made my day.
We distributed toys among them based on their age groups. Some of them started playing with toys instantly while some took time to figure out their toys. We made an effort to make them understand as how they could play with those toys. The best reaction we got was from a kid who was given a game of Chess. He said playing a game of chess would sharpen his mind and he was looking forward to playing it. Some instantly started playing with their cricket kit in the rain. You never know, some of them might turn out to the Vishwanathan Anand’s and Tendulkars’s of future.
There were lot of mixed feelings in my mind when we were moving out of Sneha Sadan. There was a feeling of joy after bonding with the kids and seeing smile on their faces. Also there was a feeling of sorrow seeing the kids at such a tender age being deprived of their childhood.
Sneha Sadan and Toybank have taken a great endeavor to allow these kids to enjoy their childhood by providing them with a shelter to live in and toys to play with. I wish them all the success in future initiatives.
Chaitali Talreja: Toybank activity at Snehasadan was an enlightening experience for sure, I have heard of the NGOs working for children and seen a few documentaries on TV but you have to be in the middle of those little angels to sense that they need more love. We were there for a few hours and tried to brighten their day as much as we could, but on my way back home I was thinking that a day is not enough! The ability and interest to learn new things was amazing and were surprisingly a very very well behaved bunch. They were not desperate to open up their toys, but when they did, the sparkle in their eyes made our day. The team had collected and distributed most of the toys that will hone their mental skills and thus help them in longer run.
Here's what Sangeeta, a Deloitte Toybankers has to say about her visit to the Mobile Creche:
Sangeeta Shirke: It was indeed an awesome experience. Had a great time with the kids @ mobile crèche. Was really amazed with the way the kids picked up the origami skills and the ambition each one had despite of challenging situations. Thanks to Deloitte and Toybank for bringing smiles on the faces of the little ones and making a positive and everlasting impact on their lives. Impressed with the thread work and leadership...great job !!!
Catch all the fun we had through the day:
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