Toys for children in need
From teddies to dollies, well-loved action figures to vintage puppets, Jane Garfield is always surrounded by toys. Working in her London-based shop that looks rather like Santa’s workshop at this time of year, Jane has the wonderful job of collecting treasured old toys from children past and present and giving them special new homes with children who might otherwise have nothing to play with.
This is the Toy Project, a charity that Jane founded while she was a schoolteacher after she came up with the simple concept of giving toys that children no longer wanted to those who do.
“I had a class where half the children were very wealthy and half were poor and I found toys were a way to bring those children together,” says Jane. “So I started asking children who had loads of toys to bring in what they didn’t play with anymore and give them to children who had none.”
From there, Jane realised she wanted to do this on a bigger scale and started asking for donations of unwanted toys that she would then give to children referred to her by organisations such as schools, councils and hospitals, so that rather than going in the bin, these toys could make another child smile.
Today, The Toy Project accepts donations of any kind of toy, except toy guns and swords, and Jane loves to see the variety of things sent in, many of which have charming stories from their former owners who loved them for so long. These toys will then go to one of the thousands of children they help, including those living on the breadline in families for whom it’s impossible to buy new toys.
Meanwhile others may have been affected by house fires, floods or needed to leave home suddenly because of domestic violence.
One such group of children she’s
helped came from the first-floor nursery of Grenfell Tower when it was hit by the devastating blaze of June 2017. Jane straight away rushed to help, rebuilding the nursery in a building next door, supplying the furniture and providing all the toys for the children to play with.
“For children involved in a disaster, toys are a very immediate thing,” says Jane, who now runs The Toy Project full-time but entirely voluntarily. “They’re not worried about where the next meal is coming from or where they’re going to live like the adults are. Instead, not having their teddy is their biggest concern and that’s where we can help bring them a little happiness in the midst of a terrible situation,” says Jane, who also runs a shop in London where she collects and sells a range of toys new and old to raise funds.
Some of the toys donated to The Toy Project also go all over the UK to children in foster care, those who have experienced a bereavement and children whose fathers are in prison.
“Very recently a child was referred to us who had been taken away from his family and placed in foster care. When he was given one of our toys, he just couldn’t believe it was really his to keep as he’d become used to things being taken away,” says Jane. “Some of the stories we hear are very emotional.”
But it’s not just children in the UK that Jane helps. After all, she says children love toys wherever they live. That’s why The Toy Project now runs a number of schemes overseas, donating items to the poorest of children.
“We’ve just sent off hundreds of Christmas boxes filled with toys to children in Uganda and Kenya who live and work on rubbish dumps,” says Jane. “The only toys they will have ever had in the past are ones their parents have scavenged from the rubbish tip so to give them good toys, donated by school children in this country is wonderful.”
And that’s not all. In recent years Jane has also helped establish a library for young people in the Caribbean and gives regular fun and educational workshops to children using puppets in schools in impoverished areas.
“My ultimate dream is that one day we will be known as the people in the middle, so I can introduce a school in say India or Africa to a school in England and every time the UK children have finished with their toys they go straight to the overseas’ school,” says Jane.
“I love that by recycling toys in this way we’re keeping toys out of landfill and helping the environment as well as bringing some comfort to children who have nothing.” ■ If you’d like to help the charity please send a cheque payable to ‘the toy Project’ 81 Junction rd, archway, London N19 5QX (the same address as the shop). toy donations can also be sent to the same address (please attach postage). For more details call 07590 256 530 or visit thetoyproject.co.uk where you can also donate money to the charity online
‘I had a class where half the children were very wealthy and half were poor and I found toys were a way to bring those children together’