Winter Toy Appeal

This year has been difficult for us all, but it will never be as difficult for those families who live in extreme poverty. In 2020, there are around 4 million children living in poverty. That’s 30 percent of ALL children and 9 in a classroom of 30. 

Can you imagine those children waking up with no presents in their stocking or under the tree. Children don’t have the capacity to understand poverty. They might know that their parents don’t have much money but they could equally think that Santa did not visit them this year. How devastating ! We would like you all to open your eyes and your hearts to understand poverty is real! But we can all do something to help those children ( and their parents) to wake up and feel the joy of Christmas, just like all the other children across the country. 

The Winter Toy Appeal was set and run by the Local Buyers Club in Hackney seven years ago to ensure that children in poverty across North and East London have a special gift to open at Christmas. They collect new toys only and give them out via a network of schools, children’s centres, social workers, temporary accommodation services, hostels, refuges and food banks to children in most need. The toys are passed on to parents so they have the joy of giving and in that way the appeal takes away the stress of them needing to save for a gift.  Last year’s appeal reached more than 4,000 children in Hackney, Islington, Tower Hamlets and Haringey. 

Due to the pandemic, this appeal has been so much harder because shops are closed and lock down means it’s harder to reach those children. We are therefore asking you all to donate to our gofundme as little or as much as you can to give to this cause. Once the money is collected, we will use the money to buy presents for different age ranges and development stages to provide to this fund and ensure that children who are living in poverty in north london have presents to open at Christmas. 

Cat and Jen xxxx