This year has brought many challenges that we’re sure won’t have escaped you. The lingering impact of Covid, the war in Ukraine and the global cost of living crisis have created a perfect storm deepening the crisis for children and young people in street situations across the world.
Despite these challenges, we’ve been able to get more money than ever to our international partners. Through them, we’ve directly supported 10,353 children and young people in street situations. That’s twice the number of people who attended Wimbledon over the championships in 2023!
Without your support, none of this would have been possible. We encourage you to delve into this report, where you will find inspiring stories, remarkable achievements, and a testament to the transformative power of hope and action.
Toybox supported children in street situations - and often their family members - to register their births and access their birth certificates. This is a critical foundation for them to claim their right to a name, a nationality, and state supported services, and start making steps towards a safer life away from the streets.
This year, we supported 2,335 children, young people and adults from Bolivia, Guatemala, India, Kenya and Nepal to access their birth certificates or legal identity documents. We also hit an important milestone, with over 10,000 children now registered since we started our birth registration programming in 2013.
Bolivia – A new project in Santa Cruz successfully established strong relationships with local authorities, trained 54 registry officials on family and children's ID document access barriers, and registered 15 children in its first quarter.
Guatemala – 23 registration days were held through which 1,653 children received birth certificates. Strong relationships were built with national government and officials to continue to reduce the barriers to birth registration for children in street situations.
Kenya – The project assisted 106 children in obtaining birth certificates, while providing income generation training and support for 165 parents and caregivers to start small businesses.
India – Our partners collaborated and networked with government to set up camps for Aadhar card registration for children and families connected with the streets in both Delhi and Jaipur. These cards serve as proof of identity and address across India, enabling individuals to access services and open bank accounts.
Nepal – In April, we collaborated with the government for 'Vital Registration Week', specifically focusing on awareness of registration needs of children and young people in street situations.
“I didn’t realise that having a birth certificate was the only way I could be recognised as a citizen in my country – as soon as I knew that, becoming an official citizen became my goal and my dream.”
Asha, 21, Nepal
“My son not having his birth certificate was difficult because he had to be on the streets with me as I couldn’t enrol him in school. Now, he’s going to school. He will be safe there and I’m very happy. My child is like other children now.”
Koi, mother, Kenya
“To other children who don’t have their birth certificate, I’d say that they shouldn’t give up and I’d tell parents they should register their children so that they don’t feel bad about themselves or ever feel like they’re not legal in their country like I used to.”
Alma, 11, Guatemala
“Now, my children and grandchildren have the blessing of having a name and they have the blessing of having their rights.”
Jimena, grandmother, Guatemala
Many children in street situations face barriers to education, including financial constraints, discrimination, and lack of support from family. Toybox works to address these challenges by collaborating with schools, reducing discrimination, providing financial assistance, and supporting parents while also offering non-formal and alternative education to equip children with essential skills. This year we supported 2,233 children to attend school – that is 74 classrooms with 30 children in each!
In Nepal, a Mobile School was integrated within the existing education project enabling an increased reach of activities to over 400 children. This 'school on wheels' goes to where the children are, reducing barriers to formal education.
“Before, I was unable to read and write but now I can express my thoughts and feelings. I also learned about basic hygiene and to wear neat and clean clothes every day.”
Jamila, 11, India
“I feel happy going to school because I can be with my friends and learn lots of different things – Maths is my favourite! Education is so important for the future of every child and if I were the President, I would make sure more children had access to school.”
Erick, El Salvador
“I still wake up early and go to pick rubbish from the drains, which I sell to give my mother money. But now, after that, I go to the Education Centre and school before going home in the evenings. I get a midday meal and milk every day at school.”
Aamir, 12, India
Extreme poverty is a huge factor in pushing children onto the streets, where they often engage in risky work for minimal wages to support themselves and their families.
Toybox supports these children to break the cycle of poverty and street living by training young people and care-givers in business skills, facilitating savings groups, and providing startup capital and ongoing support to establish income-generating businesses, as well as offering vocational training and apprenticeships for direct employment opportunities.
Kenya – Two urban farms in Nairobi have empowered over 90 young people in street situations to grow and sell nutritious food, yielding 1,600 kgs of vegetables valued at £450 and improving community perception and reducing crime.
Guatemala – 40 teenagers and young people were supported in vocational training courses in partnership with the government training institute.
El Salvador – Our partner, Viva, set up and rolled out a volunteer programme linking with local universities. As a result, children are receiving increased individual coaching during school reinforcement workshops helping them to learn faster and building their confidence.
“The thing I like most about having my own business is being self-dependent and gaining respect from the community for my work because it is meaningful. I am able to cater for my needs and those of my children. I am proud of the strong woman I’ve become.”
Amina, mother, Kenya
“When I started my training the hardest thing was getting used to being occupied for the whole day. Waking up every day and reporting to school was a bit hard in the initial stages, but I'm grateful to PKL who did numerous follow ups and checks to ensure I attended school.”
Chilemba, 19, Kenya
“My one bit of advice to anyone who wants to create their own urban farm is that you need to be very dedicated. You also need to be patient, since you may plant some seeds and they may fail to germinate. But you mustn’t give up but replace them and try again.”
Sparta, 16, Kenya
Children in street situations face constant uncertainty, exposure to harsh conditions, and increased risks of illness, injury, and addiction. Toybox supports projects to provide first aid, medical assistance, and vital mental health support to address their physical and psychological needs, helping them create a path to a better future through personalised 'life plans'.
In Sierra Leone, around 500 ecofriendly menstrual pads were designed and produced by ten female entrepreneurs to improve menstrual hygiene. These were distributed to girls and women in the community and some were sold for profit to enable production to continue.
Children and young people in street situations often face legal issues due to their lifestyle and lack of protection.
Toybox supports access to justice by teaching them their rights, offering legal representation in court, and advocating for fairer sentences. In Kenya, Toybox's partner PKL has reduced the average sentence from 2 ears to 10 months for 71 young people, often leading to acquittal, probation, or out-of-court settlements.
Toybox has supported various emergency interventions over previous years, including Covid response and disaster relief. In the past year, this kind of emergency support has mainly focused on malnutrition response programmes in response to cost-of-living crises.
Children in Guatemala benefitted from an emergency nutritional support project started in response to rising levels of malnutrition as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
In Nepal, families in street situations were provided with emergency food support and the children were supported with education kits including bags and books to enable them to continue with their schooling.
"I never thought I would be helped like this, they support me with eggs every week, with training, with study, I don't know what to say, just thank God and you, because you have been a blessing for our lives.”
Roberta, mother, Guatemala
A foundation to Toybox's work is educating children, caregivers, and communities about Child Rights and protection and addressing the disparities in realising these rights.
For example, in El Salvador, children have been learning about their protection rights, while parents and caregivers have been educated on creating safe environments. In Kenya, Toybox partners with Local Area Advisor Councils to train them in identifving and reporting abuse cases, resulting in 672 cases reported in the past year.
Bolivia – Children, adolescents, and young leaders of the "I count too" Network presented four national-level policy proposals on Health and Sport. Familv. Education, and a Life without Violence. Additionallv, they shared an international declaration at the Football World Cup for street children in Oatar, where Alalav's team secured third place.
Guatemala – 49 children participated in the 'Learning to Live Together' methodology, strengthening their understanding of child rights. The project held a 2-day camp which gave the children an experience away from the pressures of work and their usual environment to learn and relax together.
The need for programmatic and organisational sustainability to be built into partner agreements and project designs from the outset.
This is a major focus in our new strategic period in which there is greater emphasis on sustainability of partnerships, projects and interventions. Our desire is to ensure healthy partner organisations over the long term delivering projects based on agreed mutual goals so that children in street situations can be better supported to realise their potential- not only short term gains.
Government policies at both local and national levels make a huge difference - they can either enable or prevent children living in street situations to access desperately needed services.
Across our portfolio of projects in different countries we have seen how government policies - especially when backed up with proper implementation- enable children in street situations to better access services and therefore level opportunities with non street connected peers. We will continue to support our partners to influence necessary policy change and implementation at local level to reduce existing barriers.
Although face to face peer to peer learning is ideal, virtual events enable higher levels of participation from more partner staff – at a much lower cost, time commitment and environmental impact.
Our learning from this past year’s event will lead to more frequent, targeted learning and sharing virtual events in the coming year. Having tested online live translation tools at this years event, we will continue to explore the use of technology to improve learning and sharing across staff from multiple countries.
“Through this Partner Learning event we have got many ideas for the betterment of the street children. “
Toybox partner feedback on 2023 partner learning event
“The coordination and partnership drive bringing all partners together in experience sharing model and the learnings and challenges brings an eye opener on how we can improve on our programs.”
Toybox partner feedback on 2023 partner learning event
“I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the entire Toybox team for organizing such a remarkable Partner Learning Event. Your commitment to excellence, attention to detail, and dedication to delivering a valuable experience were truly commendable. I am genuinely grateful for the knowledge gained, the connections made, and the overall enriching experience. I look forward to future events organized by Toybox and will enthusiastically recommend your events to my colleagues and peers. Thank you once again for your exceptional work.”
Toybox partner feedback on 2023 partner learning event
“The partner learning event was a wonderful opportunity of cross interaction and learning with different NGOs on how they are contributing on various levels for the upliftment and betterment of street children from education to providing opportunities to make them financially independent. Also learnt about other aspects as well for example fundraising, governance and organisational sustainability.”
Toybox partner feedback on 2023 partner learning event
To have directly worked with over 8,000 children in street situations by 30 June 2023. - Yes! We supported 10,353 children and young people which we are delighted about!
Find out moreTo support over 1,600 children and young people to access birth registration documents by 30 June 2023. - Yes, 2,068 children and young people plus 267 adults received their identity documents - our birth registration programmes continue to go from strength to strength.
Find out moreTo support over 1,000 children and young people with access to formal and informal education by 30 June 2023. - Oh yes – We managed three times what we had planned with 3,141 children and young people being supported.
Find out moreTo implement a new Project Management Database for our projects by 31 December 2022. - Nearly , the project will be implemented in the first quarter of the next Financial Year.
Find out moreTo put in place a sustainability framework by March 2023 which will guide decision making on projects and partnerships to maximise the impact Toybox can have. - This began in FY23 and will be completed in FY24.
Find out moreTo ensure continuous improvement in safeguarding and ensure that at least 80% of partners are on a RAG rating of green by 30 June 2023. - Yes – it was 88%.
Find out more