Street children are subject to malnutrition, hunger, health problems, substance
abuse, theft, harassment by the city police and railway authorities, physical and
sexual abuse. Inadequacy of budget allocation impacts on sustainability of projects
and, in particular, the ability to employ qualified and experienced social workers.
There is evidence that childhood and adolescent depression is on the rise through
the child's growing years. Play through toys helps the children distract their minds
from these hazardous environments. It helps them from succumbing to the distress
caused by their circumstances.
The fact that each day we meet and see so many kids around the slums on Bombay who
are either homeless or left on the streets to fend for themselves, these kids that
sit on the pavements playing with stones or broken toys or cycle tires, overwhelms
us to immediately fill in that need, the need of a proper and a rightful childhood.
The day every child in this universe, rich/poor, has his/her childhood back, be
it in terms of Toys, or education, or basic right to survival and development and
that no organization like Toybank or any other is required to give all that, will
be the day when we would have really accomplished our goal.
We at Toybank think that we are all pieces of a large jig saw puzzle; some fulfill
basic needs of food, clothing and education while some like us focus on bringing
happiness through play into the lives of children. The day all the pieces are put
in perfectly and the picture is crystal clear, will be the day Toybank can shut
shop.
Our observations:
At Toybank we have witnessed clear changes in many of the children Toybank has reached
out to. Many children now have learnt the importance of sharing, of being more sensitive
towards their environment, of respecting their elders and even their brothers and
sisters, of controlling their temper and most of all through the toys they receive
from Toybank, they have again become children, happy and joyous just as how children
should be. These observations and studies have convinced us all at Toybank that
there is a definite need for an organization as ours.