Keerthana and Blessy

So here I come with the latest update of the event held today...

It was another fun-filled day for so many kids and volunteers. The atmosphere was full of everyone wanting to give something, but no one was aware that everyone will have so much to 'take away' at the end of the event :).. a second event with Kilikili couldn't have been better than this!

I reached the venue "Coles Park, Fraser Town" with my brother Pavan who's the newest kid on the block..to have joined me on my weekend programmes with a few organizations :) ...like Toybank and Kilikili.

I met up with all the volunteers whom I'd seen around 2 months back at the first event and had so much fun with, they were amazing last time... But today morning, for me all of this looked like the first event had happened just a week back or so!

We had a "registration team" which registers literally everyone coming to the event viz kids from various schools, volunteers, parents, care-takers and the teachers. Also there are steering committee members and guests too. So the first thing I did was to "register" myself by filling up a volunteer-profile form. Though my details has been with Kilikili for more than 3 months now, it was fun doing it again :).

While I was doing all the "hi-how r u doing-what's up" conversations with many of my friends from the previous event, kids from Goodwill Girls' High School arrived and few mins later the kids from Jyoti Seva - the latter a school for children who are visually impaired, arrived. Within no time, kids from APD - Association of People with Disability also joined us. I was thinking it's going to be one rocking event today!

In the first event we had children from 4 schools, but the objective for the first event was "to make play accessible" even for the kids with disabilities. But like I've mentioned in my previous post Kilikili also aims to lay foundations for a more inclusive society where kids are not discriminated on the basis of their abilities.

Working on the same lines, we grouped a kid from Jyothi Seva or APD with a kid from Goodwill and a volunteer to help them out in using the play space at Coles Park. I was paired up with Keerthana, everyone's favourite kid from the last event and Blessy from Goodwill.

So when me and Blessy started off by helping Keerthana play her fav "swing" in the park, in the next 1 hour, I could see Blessy take so much care of her, helped her play the swing-slide- basketball-swing over and over and am sure she enjoyed every bit of it. That was the idea of the second event today.

We wanted the students from Goodwill to play with the kids with disabilities and hence make them realize the importance of play in their lives and how much they enjoy playing... and also let them understand how important it is to welcome them into the society with open arms.

Thanks to Kilikili and thanks to Kavitha for letting us be part of such an important issue of the society we live in and also for giving us an opportunity to do what all of us would love to do - play with the kids!

Here are the Updates...

Kilikili has its second event scheduled for the 25th of this month. So we had a volunteer orientation programme on the 18th as a prerequisite for the main event on 25th, to help all the volunteers at Kilikili understand the different kinds of disabilities in children and also to put them at ease in handling special kids.

Volunteer Speak:

Suhas, one of the volunteers with Tech Mahindra Foundation says, “Just to hear about the objective and intent of Kilikili (aiming at making more play spaces special-kids-compatible) was more than inspiring. It brings about a lovely atmosphere- these kids get to become more comfortable and interact more with the rest of the society; and the normal world gets to embrace these little hearts and interact with more awareness.

It is even more encouraging to see folks from various walks of life and a wide range of age groups; all gather and volunteer with amazing determination and ideas, towards making world a better and easier place for the special little ones!!”

If you wish to donate towards this organization, we have coupons of Rs.50 and Rs.100 available for Kilikili. You can contact Kavitha - 98807 42028. [kilikili.uap@gmail.com].

Toybank had its first ever toy distribution event in Bangalore with Makkala Jagriti on 18th of August. Shweta Gopalachari, one of the founders of Toybank joined all the volunteers for this event from Mumbai.

NGO Speak:

Geetika from Makkala Jagriti says,

“After the distribution, I heard all kinds of noises from outside the centre. I ran out to check what that was, only to find a kid playing a ‘mom’s role’ with the toy gifted to her, she was patting the toy like a kid and talking continuously with it without giving a break. I couldn’t stop laughing”.

Also the money donated by some of the employees from Tech Mahindra was used in contribution (like gifting stationery items to the children along with the toys...gift wrapping the toys to make the kids feel important and special).

What are you waiting for??? - Go back home, hunt your house, wardrobes, shelves - you might end up finding few toys or games which have been lying there for ages now!!

Donate these to us and be the reason to smile for so many little ones!

Toys in good condition are welcomed at Toybank. If you or any your friends have toys, give them to us. We'll wrap them up as gifts and reach these toys to those tiny little hands!!

If you are from Bangalore and want to donate toys or If you have any queries about Toybank, write to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Double Dhamaka!

It's time to have loads of fun again!!

After Kilikili's 1st event on 30Th Of June.. I was eagerly waiting for a second one...

Here you go...Kilikili has its second event scheduled for the 25Th of this month!!
Also there's a volunteer orientation programme on the 18Th to help all the volunteers at Kilikili understand the different kinds of disabilities in children and the importance "PLAY" plays in their lives.

Kilikili aims to create play spaces that will be accessible to all children, regardless of their ability and thus help in laying the foundations of a more inclusive society, that does not discriminate or exclude on the basis of ability.

Last time we had kids from APD [Assocaition of People with Disability], AWWA ASHA, Asha Kiran and Snehalaya play in Coles Park, Fraser Town, Bangalore. Kids enjoyed and were thrilled to use the new equipments in place!!

If this is not enough... this August has more in store to explore !!

Toybank has launched its Bangalore Chapter now!

Toybank had the first toy collection drive with Tech Mahindra Foundation a couple of weeks back.The collected toys have been segregated according to the age groups of children and gift-wrapped.


These toys are waiting to be gifted to those tony little hands and that's not all!


This 18Th, Toybank Bangalore is all set to have its first toy distribution event with MakkalaJagriti. Makkala Jagriti is an NGO in Bangalore working with underprivileged children in the area of education.
Having had a volunteer stint with Toybank in Mumbai for over an year, I couldn't have asked for more!


I am all excited and looking forward to this double dhamaka :)