Toy library initiated at Action for Community ad Training (ACT), Faridabad

6 Oct 2012, Faridabad

It was a big fun start to the toy/games library at ACT, Faridabad on 6th Oct, as six of our Delhi Toybank volunteers turned up to play with around 75 kids.

We had around 40 board games, craft kits, chess, blocks and quiz sets that we opened and played. It was challenging in the beginning due to the ratio of volunteers to children, however, with the help of the ACT teachers, the room was soon divided up into smaller groups. Most of these children were seeing such board games for the first time and even though the instructions etc were in English but with little help from the volunteers, they were able to crack them!

It was quite heartening to see a lot of them displaying interest in scrabble and working hard to use their english vocabulary skills. The kids loved playing with UNO cards and also came up with interesting designs ranging from airplanes to furniture, using the block sets provided to them. The usual games of ludo, checkers and chess went on, as some others were trying to put together an electric circuit to light a low voltage bulb in an electro-magnetic game. The highlight of this session was a National Geographic DVD quiz set, which had a wonderful collection of wildlife and aquatic pictures that captured the imagination of both the children as well as the volunteer, who was translating it for them.

Here are some experiences from the volunteers, who made this event possible :)

Richa Jain: (Deloitte, Gurgaon)

About the experience on Saturday, I would say had wonderful time with kids. Teaching and playing with them was a learning experience for me also. The way they were helping each other to play the correct cards and shared the games, it was very encouraging to see them. All of them were great listeners and learners and grasped the games very soon. All in all very-very enriching experience.

Kapil Bahl: (Genpact, Gurgaon)

I loved it. The kiddies were lovely and the opening the Toy Gift was such a joy and was so infectious...sad that had to leave when we did.

Deepak Soni (IBM, Noida)

It was a wonderful and totally different experience, it's first of kind experience for me. I like work being done at the grass root level. Playing with kids, helping them understand games / puzzles and the way they respond back was very joyful.

Apurv Jain (Deloitte, Gurgaon)

I really enjoyed with children. The event was very effective as we could see the level of happiness of children. Particularly in the DVD game I found children enjoying and gaining knowledge while having fun.

Jean Matthews (IBM, Noida)

I had a fulfilling experience especially when I saw the kids arranging a sky-scraper out of lego blocks and placing the final piece of the picture puzzle :) ... look forward to more such experiences!

Ashima Khemka

For me it was about raising the bar, as the game sets that we had taken to ACT, were indeed a bit more advanced that usual. However, with a little more effort from the volunteers and a lot of help from the kids, who could read a bit of English, we cracked it! ... It was challenging as the ratio of volunteers to kids was much less than adequate but the results were very encouraging. As a result, the concerned NGO i.e. ACT has allocated three days a week during which they'll have a dedicated game hour between the kids and the teachers :)

Feedback from ACT: Gurpreet Kaur (Secretary)

We thank the volunteers at Toybank, who spent considerable time at ACT with the children and the teachers . The kids really did have a time of their life and the teachers too enjoyed learning about the various ways in which the toys/games can be used, not only for recreation but also to educate the children through play. We have fixed three days for playing with the games session of 1.5hrs each.