Written on 17/12/2018
On the dawn of Christmas day, multiple children across the UK wake up overjoyed with the thought that Santa has come. But, waking up to see the once bare Christmas tree surrounded by multiple, different shaped, beautifully wrapped presents and receiving the toy they had hoped for all year is a luxury that not all children get to experience. Some don’t receive any gifts at Christmas as they live in poverty.
One organisation trying to change this is the Winter Toy and Food Appeal, founded by Jenna Fansa, which supplies toys to families in Islington and Hackney. Islington has the second highest rate of child poverty in London, followed by Westminster, Newham and Hackney, which are all North London boroughs.
Mrs Fansa runs the Local Buyers Club with her husband providing discounts and more to serve the community and plan to expand over London and grow the toy appeal with it. The appeal is now distributing five times as many toys as it did five years ago and reaches thousands of children across North London. “What we’re doing is helping to ensure that children who are experiencing hardship always receive a Christmas present. We’re just trying to bring a moment of magic and happiness for one day of the year. We help, hopefully, to ease the pressure for the parents and carers at Christmas time,” says Mrs Fansa.
Running for five years, the appeal has supplied toys for the Ivy Street Family Centre for four years and the Hackney Migrant Centre among others. “Essentially I'm a broker for this whole process,” says Claire Reay, centre manager for Ivy Street Family Centre. “I find the children and she [Jenna Fansa] finds the gifts and we put them together.” Ivy Street arranges for service managers to collect the presents and give them on their behalf. “We stay one step removed from the process,” says Ms Reay. “For a lot of the families, it’s the only toy that that child may receive for Christmas so the toys are packaged in neutral packaging… if a parent chooses they can say its from Mom and Dad or for younger children they can say its from Santa.”
One mother who received a gift for her child through the appeal “burst into tears” when receiving the gift from the Hackney Migrant Centre due to the overwhelming generosity. “It was the very first time she had been made to feel welcome by the community that she had been living in,” says Mrs Fansa - another example of how this appeal not only provides gifts to children who can’t afford it but brings these families closer to their community. With the growth of the appeal, many charities within the area of North London have been able to give out thousands of presents and change lives.
Another company working with the appeal is Location Location, a multi-award winning local, independent estate agent for the Stoke Newington area. Location Location estimates that “two-thirds of children wouldn’t have received a new gift without the appeal”. What is apparent from this appeal is how much it brings the community together, uniting local independent businesses and charities to do something good for members of the community at Christmas.
According to the Guardian, 28% of families living in London are living in poverty, which is the highest percentage in England. This figure is rising and is particularly unsettling at Christmas. “We live in quite an isolating society,” says Ms Reay. “People don’t necessarily know their neighbours and they don’t necessarily know people in their local community but to have the knowledge that somebody in your community cares enough about your family to provide them with a gift it means a lot to people.” Mrs Fansa is hoping the appeal will be one of those that helps the situation these families are in but also brings unity in the community. “It would be my hope as we reach new areas that every new area we reach we should expand our Toy appeal to each new area and create some magic for children all over London,” she says. “That we could make this London-wide one day would be brilliant.”
On the contrary, Ms Reay says, “If we find we are getting fewer referrals we [Ivy Street] see that as a good thing because it means there are fewer people in need. But our plan is just to continue doing what we’ve always done which is responding to the needs of our immediate community.”
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