Kiddywinkles Helping Kids in Need

Early Childhood Education is a wonderful industry to be in but as we all know, it comes with a unique host of challenges. Overriding the pressure from these challenges is the personal pleasure of seeing the joy on a child’s face as they experience the wonders of early learning.

We are motivated by our desire to prepare children for their educational journey and to give them the very best start possible. It is indeed gratifying watching a little one start in the baby room and progress year by year until they ‘graduate’ to Primary School.

Most children come from hard working families where parents make sacrifices in order for their child to be able to attend ECE. There are many doing it tough, who experience poverty and social distress on a daily basis, and we know this year has been particularly difficult for families with the cost-of-living crisis biting hard.

The Salvation Army support families like these with budgeting advice, food and clothing assistance, life skills and other support. In fact, The Salvation Army assist more than 150,000 people in need each year. However, when basics such as food are the priority, luxuries like toys are often an afterthought.

For over five years, Kiddywinkles with support from parents and whānau, has supported The Salvation Army by donating toys for children who may otherwise go without. At Kiddywinkles ,people are at the heart of everything we do, and this initiative provides an opportunity for us to give back to our community and contribute to making positive difference in the lives of children. Kiddywinkles Childcare is one of the largest donators of toys in NZ to the Salvation Army.

Ian Wells, Auxillary Captain and Corps Officer of The Salvation Army, summarises his experience with the latest Toy Drive in May 2024:

‘At the Westgate Salvation Army Mission Centre in Auckland, we continue to be grateful for Kiddywinkles reaching out to us to be the recipients of their culture of generosity. For over five years their whānau have contributed with toys at Christmas – the icing on the cake and ribbon on the box of our Christmas Hamper Project – so when Allen Court contacted us with an idea to run a mid-year toy drive from their Huapai centre, we were in boots and all.

The Toy Drive pulls people together with a common aim to do good with what they have. The beauty about gifting toys is that people need food – and are grateful – but to be able to give to their child a toy that is normally unaffordable, brings tears of gratitude. One parent commented that she would just never be able to purchase such a gift for her boy. What a wonderful awesome result.’