What is "toybank"

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 soon after founder, Shweta Chari shared the idea of embarking on such a project with her colleagues. It has its headquarters in Mumbai with a presence in Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Goa and Bhutan. 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.

Toybank also works towards sensitizing privileged children, teachers and adults about the importance of play in the development of children through the "Power of Play" workshops that it conducts throughout Mumbai. As of 2016, Toybank has reached over 33000 children with the help of 1500 volunteers around India and hopes to reach a total of 68000 children by the end of 2017.