Toybank celebrates Child Rights Day in partnership with Deloitte

To celebrate the Child Rights' Day, Toybank joined hands with Deloitte, under their Impact Day initiative to reach out to over 300 children from different NGOs on the 23rd of November, 2012.
Deloitte also donated 200 brand new toys to Toybank, out of which we will set up Toy Libraries at 2 NGOs.

Shweta Chari, the CEO of Toybank, sounded off the Toybank story to the 35 Deloitte volunteers who were going to be involved in the fun-filled day. 

35 enthusiastic Deloitte volunteers teamed up with Toybankers and split themselves into 3 groups. 
 All of us visited 3 NGOs:

- Snehasadan

- Ashadeep Association

- Asha for Education

All the volunteers had a great time interacting with the children at the 3 NGOs. 

We first conducted a movie screening session and showed the children a cartoon movie - "Trish, Krish & Baltiboy Part 1". Later in the day we played some fun games and taught the children how to make butterfly, flowers, pop-up cards etc. out of origami paper.

Volunteer speaks:

"Being a part of the Toybank thread at the Impact Day was an overwhelming experience. Playing with the kids, watching cartoon movie, teaching them origami, dancing with them and in the end distributing toys was like getting the opportunity to be a Santa for a day. The session started with a cartoon movie and the kids were really excited. It was fun hearing them sing aloud the catchy tunes from the movie and making fun of the characters. All of them were very keen on learning the origami flying bird and the jumping frog. Watching their enthusiasm for learning and interacting with everyone was very inspiring. The idea of Toybank is to give the right to childhood to the kids, but believe me it was like going back to our childhood and being kids again. I definitely look forward to being involved in the other ongoing activities at Toybank."

-Mor, Rashi Kanhaiyalal

"I knew the importance of toys when I associated myself to the thread called Toybank. I got connected to this thread in 2011 and was overwhelmed by the response that we received then. Above all, the joy of giving is what got me again enrolled for this thread in 2012.

In fact the whole thread is driven by the smile & enthusiasm that you see on the faces of each little ones. By the way of Toybank, I feel we are doing justice to underprivileged kids, by giving them their right to …..Play."

-  Nair, Pradeesh Balkrishnan

"It was a very good experience volunteering for the Toybank thread on the impact day. It was a memorable experience which bought to forefront all the sweet memories of childhood while watching the cartoon films and doing origami with the kids. I am also greatly inspired by the tireless work that Toybank does with creativity, commitment and love to bring a smile on the faces of these little children. I am highly honored to be a part of this the thread and I look forward to working with this thread in the future as well.  And lastly I would like to say, keep volunteering and contributing to the community as it’s rightly said that “Every action in our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.”

- Lakhani, Aamin

"I had been to Snehasadan as part of Deloitte’s Impact Day thread – Toybank.

It was a very touching experience in meeting the kids and teaching them Origami, drawing and also distributing toys to them.

I was amazed by the zeal and talent in the kids and relished the few hours I had spent in spreading joy in their hearts and nurturing their talent."

- Viswambharan, Sajan

"Novak Djokovic said, 'What I learned as a young child continues to have a tremendous impact on my life today.'

Most of our lives have an uncanny resemblance to the words he said. The impressions left on us as youngsters remain with us forever.  But sometimes when we take a step forward to being more ‘humane’ than we already are, we realize that there are so many people and things that we can leave an impact on.

The same happened on the very aptly named “Impact Day”. Those were moments that I would remember and cherish for the years to come. Our first experience with children who hailed from impoverished backgrounds, but aimed for the stars.  Interaction became an understatement when we started playing with them, helping them draw and color. A few of them took the craft paper righteously from our hands and taught us how to make a hat! It was overwhelming to hear them talk about their aspirations and tell us their versions of the movie shown to them. In all the day taught us a lot more than we could ever teach them, and when it was time to say goodbye, very innocently the shiny- eyed kids asked us “When would you come next?”  And the day couldn’t have been better!!"

- Khanduri, Divya

“A bunch of us volunteers at Deloitte chose to go to Snehasadan, a home for the less fortunate children as part of our Impact day activity.  We spent the whole day with the Kids, watching movies, doing creative stuff like drawing, painting and origami. At the end we distributed toys to each of these kids, after all, we were a part of the Toybank!!! I was mesmerized by the energy and talent that these children possessed.  It was a rewarding experience to see them enjoy themselves. The smile on their faces made my day.“

- Bhat, Swastika

"It was all splendid experience to attend the impact day session with Toybank.

Children from various houses were at same place, but it was difficult to tell that they belonged to different places. Whatever activities were played – Movie, Origami, and Drawing or juggling, they actively participated in all the session. They all were very enthusiastic and energetic to learn the things.at the end; they thanked us with a smile.

After the session, father addressed all the volunteers. When, how and why houses are built? What challenges they face?

It was great to hear the insights and moved me to be more actively participate and meet these kids more often.

On summarize, I think that few hours spend that day, I learnt and enjoyed a lot."

- Sachdeva, Mukta

"I have been part of social activities before like teaching lesser privileged children, spending time in an orphanage, etc. Being at Snehasadhan was a whole different experience. The kids there were very welcoming, friendly and in high spirits. I feel I enjoyed more than those kids would have while spending time with them watching movie, drawing or making origami patterns.  I am really glad Toybank came up with such an innovative idea of setting up toy library and taking care of the child-part in these children. The smile these children had, when we were giving them toys is something that will stay with me. It also encourages me to continue being a part of Toybank. I am really grateful to Toybank and Deloitte to provide me with this experience. I look forward to spending more time with these kids.

Congrats for doing such a great job."

- Saraf, Manisha

"It was very pleasant experience to be with the children at Snehasadan .

It was fulfilling as well as thought provoking journey. On the one hand, it makes us see the anomalies of the world, while simultaneously we could see the path of change as well. But the intriguing part for me was that, what I could understand was those children are more in need of affection and time other than anything. It was heartening to see their fight for survival and a better future but our collective indifference as a society towards them has to be changed.

To sum up, it was experience of a life-time.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity."

- Parashar, Saurabh

"It was a different kind of experience interacting with so many children. I left in the evening with a completely positive attitude in life.

I would look forward in helping out for such a cause in the future."

- Kaul, Vikas Virandhar

Responses from our NGO partners:

Dr.Smita from Asha for Education: "The event was very enjoyable for the children, especially the Movie shown by Toybank was thoroughly enjoyed by all the kids. We would appreciate it if Toybank could conduct other such activities at Asha for Education and also establish a toy library here."

Sister Thresa from Snehasadan: 
Thank you for distributing toys, and I know fully well the children will make the best use of it. The screening of the animated film was a beautiful idea and the children did enjoy it very much.

Father Fonseca from Snehasadan: It was a very rewarding experience for the children to interact with such wonderful set of enthusiastic people. Thank you for spending a full day and entertaining the children. This event was a gain for both the kids and the volunteers.

Toybank would like to thank all our Toybankers who helped uswith the preparations of the event and during the event 
A big Thank You to:

• Simadri Rout
• Trisha Salva
• Aashray Mody
• Neel Sakariya
• Jyoti Bhat
• Nutan Raj
• Sonia Chaudary
• Madhavi Singh
• Shalaka Targe
• Kalpita Mahadik
• Aditya Iyer
• Niyati
• Nidhi
• Aishawariya

Keep Toybanking! :-)

Pictures of the event... coming soon...!!