London’s most deprived children will receive up to fifteen thousand Christmas gifts on 10 December from a London-based NGO.
The drive is organised by The Kindness Offensive, a Tufnell Park community project which aims to encourage acts of kindness.
It has been described as the UK’s largest toy drive by Joanna Bevan, community organiser at The Kindness Offensive.
In a massive operation involving 200 volunteers, a double decker bus, and the project’s new “Kindness Van”, gifts will be delivered to children in hospitals across the capital, as well as to young people cared for by family charities.
“Some of the toys will be the only gift a child will receive this Christmas,” said Bevan.
The presents include wooden toys handmade in the Czech Republic specially for the drive, as well as board games, teddy bears and colouring books.
Lush, the cosmetics company, has donated lotions and bath bombs as gifts for teenagers.
The drive is sponsored by the insurance company XL Catlin. XL Catlin employees will work alongside volunteers to wrap all 15,000 presents in their City offices.
Ms Bevan said the enterprise is about inspiring kindness. “We just hope to give a small piece of kindness to someone. It’s a little gesture that will spread, and it’s particularly important at this time of year.”
Image credit: Paul Maple
