Help underprivileged children get access to educational games and toys

Underprivileged children don’t have access to games and toys. Thus, they stand to lose out on the cognitive, social, emotional and linguistic benefits of play. At a broader level, they don’t have access to a happy childhood. This puts them at a higher risk of having a troubled adulthood.

Toybank addresses development needs amongst underprivileged children through play, toys and educational games. Play is a positive, powerful and impactful tool that provides children with emotional benefits and helps develop their cognitive and social skills. Our operating model is a collaborative one, wherein we partner with other NGOs and schools to set up Toy Libraries in their premises. Our field workers, interns and volunteers work closely with these centers to conduct play sessions and workshops. We also conduct toy distribution programmes, where each child is gifted a toy to take home.

Toybank has over 250 game libraries across Maharashtra, and currently works with over 38,000 children who play at Toybank centers every day. This includes children at-risk such as those living at shelter homes and children of sex workers. The benefits of play are scientifically proven, and include improvement in a child’s social and emotional skills, life skills, motor skills and language skills. Our partners have also reported encouraging qualitative feedback on Toybank’s impact: Rise in the attendance levels, reduction in dropouts, increased enrollments, children are motivated to come indoors into safer surroundings thus, ensuring lesser risk for them, and parents of these children are now able to connect with their children.