Formation August,2004 Headquarters Mumbai, India | Founder Shweta Chari Website www.toybank.org | |
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Type Non-governmental organisation Slogan "Development through Play" | ||
Toybank, an initiative under The Opentree Foundation is an organization in India that promotes the Right to Play for all children. It provides a platform to all individuals from all ages to participate in this movement of propagating the Right to Childhood. It was founded in August 2004 by Shweta Chari. It is headquartered in Mumbai with a presence in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Goa and Bhutan.
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Toybank reaches toys and board games to underprivileged children through distributions and the setting up of toy libraries called as Play Centers. The organization has set up 145 play centers in Mumbai with a total of 251 active play centers around the country.
History
Toybank was initiated in 2004 by Shweta Chari. Her initial efforts to garner donations received a tremendous response with her home flooded with over a thousand toys within a month. Chari took up a job in 2005 to fund her organization’s activities but quit in 2009 to completely focus her attention on Toybank. Toybank’s first major project was a toy distribution event where more than 500 toys were distributed to children in 3 locations around Mumbai. By 2015, Toybank had established its presence in the form of 176 play centers in Mumbai and over 50 play centers in other cities including Delhi, Pune, Bangalore. Toybank was also involved in setting up 22 play centers in the drought-hit district of Beed, Maharashtra affecting over 3100 children in 2016.
Areas of Work
Toybank initially started with the objective of providing toys to children from weak socio-economic backgrounds and this has been their primary area of work since its inception. Toybank regularly organizes collection drives in schools, corporate houses etc. through its volunteer network. These toys are then dispatched to its play centers or wrapped and set aside for distribution.
Toybank has a network of 145 play centers in Mumbai and another 105 outside the city in 9 districts in rural Maharashtra. A library of toys is maintained at each one of these play centers visited by children from poor backgrounds. The toys at the libraries may either be newly bought or collected through the toy collection drives. As of 2016, Toybank is affiliated with 55 partners around the country.
Toybank has also been involved in sensitizing teachers about the importance of play in a child’s development through its “Power of Play” workshops in community centers and public schools.