Toybank turns 8 and more!

The jump from turning 5 to 8 is indeed a huge one! Come August 2012, Toybank will complete 8 amazing years of making children happy in various cities and rural areas of India and children from Bhutan as well!

While the jump happened slowly in the background over the last 3 years, I was busy moving from one city to another in India and also found an opportunity to visit a country renowned to be 'Truly Asia' for it's culture and demographics!

My previous post talked about Toybank turning 5 and of it's newest chapters back then, Bangalore and Pune and their activities. Add Delhi, Hyderabad, UK and Bhutan to the list, and that's how much Toybank team has grown over the last 3 years! :)

Toybank had a huge gathering of its volunteers, supporters, board members, partners on 9th Jun this year and the event passed on a lot of happy vibes through the evening with all the stakeholders sharing their thoughts and experiences on working with Toybank.

Here's a cool gift I received from the team that day :)

This Summer I also managed to join the Delhi Photography Club and attended 2 amazing heritage photo walks with them, which has added a lot of variety to my weekends along with Toybank! :) Drop by on the blog's home page and take a look at some of the glimpses I managed to catch in Malaysia and India in the recent past!

Toybank turns 5!

Yes indeed! Toybank turned '5' on the 15th of August! And we are planning to make this 5th year anniversary a fantastic one. Here are some upcoming events in Pune and Bangalore!

Toybank Bangalore
Our last event in Bangalore was with kids at IAR summer camp in May. It's time to gear up for the next distribution event and this time in rural Karnataka - a first of its kind for Toybank Bangalore.

On the 6th of September 12 of our volunteers will be distributing toys to the kids from Govt. Higher Primary Secondary School in Siddarahalli village of Belur, Hassan district. Toybank is working with 2 other social welfare groups to bring in more cheer to the children during the event.

JoinUs2Help - will be sponsoring a parade drum and copy-writing books for the children.
Aakanksha - would also participate and engage the children in coloring, drawing and some craft activities.

We also had a toy collection drive in ANZ, Bangalore. The employee volunteers have collected the toys and they are now going to be wrapped and distributed very soon!

Please mail in at bangalore@toybank.org for any queries.

Toybank Pune
After the 1st toy distribution event in Pune with Gyanankur School, Toybank Pune is back in action!
Toybank donated 350 toys to 300+ kids and to the toy library of the school.

We have few events planned to celebrate the 5th year anniversary. But these have taken a set back due to the swine flu attack in Pune. A toy collection drive is planned in one of the societies and dates are being discussed with the management to arrange the drive. Also we are planning for a toy distribution event with one of the schools run by Akanksha with the help of PMC and other MNCs.

Please mail in at pune@toybank.org for any queries.

Join us in making the rest of the year an amazing one by reaching out to more kids with Toybank. Join Toybank on Facebook & Orkut and spread the word. Get instant updates about our events on Twitter!

You can also send in any suggestions and feedback to us on our website!

Oh Yes! am alive and blogging!

I hate to realize it every time that it's been almost 6 months since my last post now!
I was caught up with a few things at work, home and Toybank. But none of these are any kind of excuses for not being in the scene.

In the past 2 weeks I was down with fever and cough, you know the kind of sad cough - I don't even remember having one of these in a long long time! I had sleepless nights in spite of taking all kinds of antibiotics, syrups, home-remedies and now homeopathy too. Don't you worry - I don't have 'the flu'. I am working from home for a couple of weeks now and hoping to get back to the work routine soon.

These days I mostly wait for weekends more than anything else to have some 'me' time. EPL's back with a new season! Though we haven't had the best start am sure things will get better very soon.

And yeah there was 24 to our rescue after we had finished watching Lost season 5. And now that we have successfully finished watching all the 7 seasons of 24 as well, all we can do is wait until January arrives for some action on the small screen! Meanwhile I was exposed to a sitcom - Frasier, a delightful show with unique characters! Hope I can munch on this for a while. We did try Entourage but somehow after 2 episodes I didn't crave to go back and watch more. May be will try it when we run out of all options some day :)

Alright too much of TV there! Let's move on. You know by now that Pune is on the world map for being a swine flu hot spot. All thanks to this, that in the past one month I did hear some really dumb and weird things people did because of the swine flu scare. Definitely the city was under a panic attack for the first couple of weeks after the first casualty. But with the media and newspapers taking swine flu out of all their headlines I must say that things are back to normal now.

I know I have been lazy in updating the blog. But I have been in action on Twitter though. You can catch me here!

3 cheers to 'me coming back to blogging'! Toybank updates will soon follow this post.

Let's get started!

Here are some of the action points from yesterday's meeting in Pashan.

Toy collection will go on for a month's time in Panchvati which is home to many societies/apartments in Pashan. Arvind who runs One Life activities has offered Success Club as the toy storage space for the drive. And we already saw two bags of toys donated by yesterday :)

Everyone will send in their recommendations of any NGOs they have worked with in and around Pashan (and elsewhere in Pune). This'll help us during distribution of toys.

Initially our target will be to do one distribution per month depending on the toys collected and hence reach out to kids in Pune.

And guess what I was thrilled to see some special volunteers at the meeting. Around 6 kids joined us in the meeting yesterday :) . They are willing to be volunteers for the drive as soon as they are done with their exams!

Toy drive in Pashan, Pune

Volunteers in Pune - get ready to join us for toy drives in Panchvati, Pashan.
Toybank toy drives will be on in various buildings/societies in Panchvati.

We'll be collaborating with volunteers in Pashan and One Life to kick start this toy drive.
We have a meeting scheduled today at 2 PM.

Date:	Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time:	2 - 3 PM
Location:	One Life Activity Club,Near State Bank Nagar Society,Panchvati
Street:	Pashan Road
City	Pune

Here's the agenda for the meeting.

(1) Chalk out plans for toy drive in various buildings/societies in Pune .
(2) Discuss how we can get volunteers from Pune who can help us in collection, gift-wrapping and distribution with the help of One Life and also by spreading a word across all societies.
(3) Involve Volunteers from One Life in our distribution events and hence encourage inclusive play.
(4) Identify NGOs in and around Pashan so that distributions can happen in same area.
(5) Discuss on how we can schedule monthly or fortnightly meetings/follow ups.
(6) Discuss any other ways how we can collaborate with One Life to spread the message.

Please mail us at pune@toybank.org in case you have any queries.

Also there are toy drives happening in Juhu Vile Parle, Mumbai starting from 16th of February till 7th of March. Find out more here.

This is a toy collection and distribution drive set up all through JVPD Scheme, Mumbai. Students from the MBA Tech program from the Mukesh Patel Institute are initiating this Toy rally all through mid February and March. People living around these areas can fully support this activity if interested. Please write in to mail@toybank.org for more details.

Let us give back the right to a childhood!

Vote for Shweta Chari

Toybank's in town!

Toybank's first toy collection drive is on!

I thought it's always nice to get started by creating awareness in the neighborhood first. Hence the first toy collection drive is happening in my society next weekend :)

Hope we get loads of toys from everyone. These toys will be segregated according to age groups of 1-3, 4-7, 8-12 and gift-wrapped. They'll be given to NGOs providing non formal education to kids in and around Pune. We have already identified a couple of them who have expressed interest in taking the toys.

Anyone in Pune who's interested in volunteering for Toybank or anybody who wish to donate toys, gift wrapping sheets or stationery required for gift-wrapping, please contact me on toybank-pune@toybank.co.in.

Volunteers from Bangalore, please write in to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in and if you are in Mumbai write to us at mail@toybank.co.in

Watch this space for more!

Say hello to Toybank Pune

Hey all!

How's everybody doing??

You must be wondering if Toybank shut down its Bangalore operations. We apologize for not being in action for close to 5 months! The last event in Bangalore was on 21st of Dec for kids from Annanya.

Time for a quick recap!

Coordinators for Toybank Bangalore:
Vinay D R and I are the coordinators for Toybank Bangalore. The Bangalore Chapter started on 18th Aug 2007.

The journey so far:
We had toy distribution events with Nele (18th Aug) and Makkala Jagriti (8th Sept), Swanthana , Suraksha Makkala Rakshane (2nd Dec) and amazing toy collection drives in Raheja Residency, Koramangala (22nd Sept) and Akme Harmony (5th Jan 2008) . We celebrated Children's Day with kids from Balajothi Centre for the Disabled, Benson Town. Also we had a fantastic time with kids from Annanya where we celebrated Christmas on the 21st of Dec!

A lot of changes have happened at Toybank Bangalore in the past 7 months.

I moved out of Bangalore in mid October last year to Mumbai and then to Pune in December. Since then I have been caught up with work and then there was my 'marriage':-). Now we are working on building up the Toybank Pune Chapter!

Vinay works for Motorola, Bangalore and has moved to Pre sales a year ago. His new role requires him to travel extensively abroad and hence he too isn't able to give a lot of time for arranging more events.

Till now we were using iVolunteer's Bangalore office for the gift wrapping sessions as we don't have an office in Bangalore. We thank Prarthana and iVolunteer immensely for giving us the space! Even now I guess there are a lot of toys lying around at their office :-)

We are now looking for active volunteers in Bangalore and also a couple of coordinators who would arrange toy collection drives/ toy gift wrapping sessions and toy distribution events.

If you are interested to coordinate or volunteer for Toybank Bangalore, please write to us on mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Also volunteers interested in volunteering for Toybank Pune, please do write to us for volunteering opportunities and any queries at toybank-pune@toybank.co.in

Be the reason behind their smile.

Back with a Bang!!

After a short break, Toybank Bangalore is back in action !!

With the Children's Day around the corner, we at Toybank definitely won't be idle this month :). We have decided to bring more smiles to the children in Bangalore by celebrating Children's Day with them!

So join us at these events happening this week:
(1) Children's Day with kids of Balajothi Centre for the Disabled - Benson Town.
Date : 14th November 2007
Time: 9.30 AM onwards ( around 2-3 hours)

If you wish to drop in and make it more special, here's the address -
Balajothi Centre for the Disabled
# 25, 2nd main, S.K.Garden
Benson Town, Bangalore – 560046

For landmark please contact the Director Mr. J.M. Balaraj at 23541940 or 9341907162.

(2) Inauguration of a new Makkala Jagriti learning centre in partnership with Dept. of Women & Child Development, Govt. of Karnataka.

Toybank is giving away toys to Makkala Jagriti's new learning centre this Saturday. These toys will go to the 'toy space' at the centre.

What are you waiting for!??

If you want to donate a toy and make this Children's Day a special one to a child or if you have any queries or suggestions, please write to us mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in

Watch out for this space for more events and activities happening at Toybank!

Toybank featured in Sattva's Anniversary Issue

Check out for Toybank being featured in Sattva's Anniversary Issue -

Also check out Sattva's anniversary issue on Nextbillion.net, which is a website of New York-based World Resources Institute.

In their Anniversary issue you'll find:

* National Youth Foundation, an organization for youth, who
work on bringing youth NGOs together on a common platform.
* Jain College's highly innovative community radio program.
* Nitin Rao, 21-year old Sattvic Celebrity talks about how
for-profit social initiatives are the way of the future
* Aaditeshwar from the Waterloo University, Ontario, guest
columnist on building low cost rural networks to reach thousands.
* A very interesting look at the Rajinikanth fans association
and the community initiatives they carry out under the
superstar's banner.
* Meet the faces behind Sattva in team sketches and the
founder introduction page.
* Messages for Sattva from the readers.

If you want to know more about people behind the making of Sattva and their ideas visit ITIHAS

Toys, Toys and MORE Toys!

You have to check out these pics to believe what an awesome toy collection drive we had today at Raheja Residency!

Toybank thanks -

• all those people who spent some time to dig their wardrobes for some toys which their kids would have thrown away long back!
• all those moms who got their kids along to our stall, and when their kids started feeling sad about giving their toys away, they consoled them saying "beta, you promised me that you'll give these toys, now other children will play with them".
• people who have now moved out of Raheja, but still came all the way to give toys after getting an email on the Raheja group.
• Friends and volunteers who managed to get the carton boxes, stationery, packaging tape in place for this drive.

Thanks everyone!!

Soft toys - cho cute!

Toddler toys!

I have to still figure out what this one is!

We've skaters too!

Toybank stall... no one's there though... he he he :)

Educational toys!

So here we come...

Join us for the 2nd toy collection drive in Bangalore this weekend!

Date and Time: 22nd Sept, 10 AM - 1 PM
Venue - Club House, Raheja Residency, Koramangala 3rd Block, Bangalore

You can help Toybank -

• To arrange a Toy Collection Drive in your neighborhood, schools, apartments, corporate offices.
• As Volunteers in collecting the toys, segregating them according to different age groups of the children and also in gift-wrapping them.
• In "helping us find their lost childhood" and in spreading the word around.

For any queries and suggestions, write to us at mail-bangalore@toybank.co.in
Also Join Toybank at

• http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=10288292
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toybankforum

ram ram :)

Saturday, 8th of September - Yet another memorable day!

I will always remember this day for loads of happiness, life, excitement, josh and high doses of energy around me!

Thanks to the kids from Asha Kirana Nele - angels with beaming eyes!

We reached the venue near Gottigere, Bannerghatta Road well before the scheduled time, met up with the staff at Nele. With in 5-10 mins the little ones marched into their home with heavy school bags. We waited for all of them to come back from school so that we could start off our Teacher's Day toy distribution event for Toybank. Trust me, I couldn't wait any longer!

Center in-charge, A S Patil was telling us that the identified kids are brought to the Nele Home and they are given a 3 month bridge course to help them get used to going to school. And later, they are admitted into a school. We were so happy when we heard that this Govt School was right beside the home.

By 11 30, all the kids were back from school. We had an 'Intro Please' game with all the kids. We asked them to say their name, class in which they are studying and yes, along with this we asked them to sing a song or give us a dance performance. What happened next? You should have been there with us to enjoy all that what happened after that!!

My visits to NGOs in the past had me see an average of 60% of the kids who are very enthu and energetic but still there's always this remaining 40% group which remains shy and reserved! But how can ALL the kids at Nele be superrrrrrr talented, superrrrrrrrr smart, full of discipline and have a lot of cultural values which exactly mirrors Nele's vision statement!

Also I observed a very nice thing that all the smaller kids in the home greet all the elder ones when they meet each other.

We had told the kids not to repeat any song in the “Intro Please”. And guess what… there were 32 kids and each one sang us a different song!! Even if any of the kids sang a song which was already sung and we stopped them, they didn’t back out!! They went ahead and sang us a brand new poem/song. 2 groups gave us dance performances for songs about the nation and the state.

Only one kid sang “Anisuthide yaako indu” from Mungaaru Male, a recent blockbuster in Kannada Film Industry and one sang from Sivaji – a Tamil blockbuster. This took us by surprise coz these were the only “film songs” the kids sang, rest all of them being Kannada poems taught to them in school.

We had planned a 2 hour event with the kids, but seeing their immense talent and excitement we pushed it close to 3 hours as we wanted all children to get a chance to showcase their talent. We didn’t have to plan any games and organize any fun activities. We were already having so much of FUN! There was absolutely no need to plan any more games to entertain the kids.

After the Intro Please, we distributed chocolates to the kids and then happened the 2^nd “toy distribution event” for Toybank. We gave around 30 toys to the home which included soft toys, kitchen toys, cars, bikes, etc.

There are these other toys, something we have termed the ‘teacher toys’ :) which we give it to the teachers/care-takers at an NGO, so that they make all the kids play/use them for group games. Nele had a play space, now it'll have a 'toy space'. All these toys will now go to the 'toy space' in Asha Kirana Nele where all kids can play with them.

The kids went on to dedicate a song to their teachers at Nele giving them all the respect they deserve!

It was wrap-up time… we started bidding bye to all the tiny tots at Nele. Suddenly 5 kids came up to me and held my hands and said...

“akka neevu nam jote bandu oota maadi…ondu sari banni…banni akka…” [“Sis come and have lunch with us…just one time…please come sis”].

I was happy, excited and yes speechless! :).

I am sure all the people who know me the best want me to stay ‘speechless’ all the time :P. Jokes apart…this emotion can never be expressed in just a few words!

Few seconds later I came out of my world of happiness, I told them that definitely I’ll join them another time. I am sure that’ll happen very soon! :)

After a quick 'say cheeeeeeeeeeese' photo session, the children bid us goodbye and at Nele you wouldn’t hear a ‘bye’ from anyone…it's ‘ram ram’ :)))

Catch glimpses of the event here :)

This time it's 'Nele' !

After the superb start of its Bangalore Chapter with MakkalaJagriti last month, Toybank is back with a bang! Toybank has its 2^nd distribution event this Saturday, this time with kids from ‘Nele’.

Here's a little trivia about Nele for you-

For many children in India, streets are their homes. In Bangalore there are more than 80000 children picking rags and living on roadsides. Here's an organization 'Nele' which has experimented on a humble idea of providing a shelter and nurturing the growth of the child at the same time inculcating cultural values in these children. Nele seeks to help children help themselves. Nele's vision is to ensure physical, mental and moral soundness and well-being of the homeless children.

So what does Nele do to achieve its vision -

Nele identifies street children, rag pickers and neglected children and bring them to its home. Nele has five homes - Narendra Nele for boys and Nivedita Nele for girls, and also 3 more homes Namma Mane, Asha Kirana and Nele Premanjali. These homes provide food, shelter, education and health supervision.

Also Nele,

• Arranges for formal education and related needs
• It facilitates training in skills, crafts and arts.
• Counsels families
• Creates awareness on consequences of smoking, alcoholism and drugs

This Teacher's Day we plan to bring smiles to kids from Asha Kirana Nele and make it a memorable day for them and am sure it'd be an unforgettable day for all of us too!

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

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 :)