Meet the women who give children in their communities easy access to . . .
SIMPLE SOLUTION: Andrea Britt with daughters Grace, left, and Amelia, playing with their rented toys SISTERS Amelia and Grace Britt behave like it’s Christmas every month when their bag of rented toys arrives at their door.
Their mother, Andrea, is saving money and time through a growing phenomenon in South Africa — toy rental.
The rent-to-play trend is well established in Europe, where rented playthings have become popular with parents who need to find a way to get rid of boxes of unwanted toys.
Britt, a Cape Town businesswoman, rents toys for her daughters, aged two and four, for R199 a month, to stimulate, entertain and educate them.
“The biggest fan has been our nanny, who is thrilled with the roster of toys and provides a lot of feedback to the team about what the girls like,” she said.
Toy rental company Smart Toy Club was born when Cape Town mothers Lyneve Pieterse and Sarah Brown found themselves struggling to keep up with escalating toy prices.
Each month parents get a bag of age-appropriate toys for children between the ages of six months and five years.
The bag — rented for R199 a month — contains four to six top-brand toys with a retail value of between R700 and R1 000.
“We choose toys based on parents’ requests, their children’s likes or dislikes, coupled with age appropriateness. We have more than 150 clients and this number will grow as we have just expanded our service nationally,” Brown said.
The two women are mindful of hygiene. “The cleaning of the toys is a critical part of our process and we ensure that the toys are sterilised before they go out to new families,” Brown said.
Toys that are worn but still usable are donated to the Zandile Kidz Empowerment Centre in Khayelitsha.
Britt described her toy rental deal “as a mini-Christmas every month”.
She said: “Right now we get a mixed bag for both girls. I buy a lot less toys and while I think the money saved must be significant . . . for me it is very much about not contributing to more clutter in the world.”
The concept played “straight into a sharing economy, where we don’t have to own everything that we use”, said parenting expert Nikki Bush.
“Parents are always looking for fresh ideas.
“Every month they will be able to expose their children to different things. Children in the early age group have a short attention span.”
Little Munchkins Soft Play in Port Elizabeth offers sensory play stations — used mainly for toddler play dates — for rent at about R400 for eight hours.
“Sensory play includes any ROLE-PLAY: Esona Smith, 4, plays at the Mpophomeni toy library activity that stimulates a young child’s senses through touch, smell, taste, sight and hearing,” said owner Natalie Bruce.
Her sensory play stations include a table, four chairs, play dough, edible coloured sand and fruit loop bangles.
For those who can’t afford to rent or buy, toy libraries — usually run by non-profit organisations — are giving joy to children in far-flung areas.
Midlands Community College, a non-profit organisation based in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, has established toy libraries in Loskop, Bruntville and Mpophomeni.
More than 200 children visit the Mpophomeni toy library — a container stocked with dolls, cars, dress-up outfits, puzzles, games and books — each month.
“We also loan toys to crèches in the area. Most can’t afford toys and books. This toy library gives them an opportunity to expose children to early-development toys,” said toy librarian Pretty Mpungose.
Cotlands, an early-childhood development NPO, has six fixed toy libraries and three mobile libraries providing children in rural areas with a chance to play with science games, art and craft material, bats and balls, matching and sorting games as well as construction toys.
“A toy library is a high-impact, cost-effective way to give children, their families and teachers in underprivileged communities access to carefully selected educational material,” said CEO Jackie Schoeman.
Bush said: “In an under-resourced school, toy libraries will help children to develop the visual perceptual skills necessary to making sense of the world around them.”
We also loan toys out to crèches in the area. Most of them can’t afford toys and books