Boxes of ‘safe’ toys bound for storm victims

ECOWASTE Coalition volunteers offer their thanks to people who donated toxic-free toys for children in typhoon-hit areas. EcowWaste Coalition

Saying he felt sorry for “Yowanda” victims, a 4-year-old boy voluntarily gave up his favorite “Papa Smurf” stuffed toy and turned it over to EcoWaste Coalition for the toxics watch group’s toy collection drive for children in typhoon-hit areas.

“He saw some of the footage of the devastation shown on television and he just donated his toy,” EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said of the young donor who happens to be her son.

She added that she had to ask him several times if he really wanted to give up his favorite stuffed toy as it was his bedtime companion.

“He said he was sure, but I heard him explaining to ‘Papa Smurf’ and saying goodbye before he placed the stuffed toy in the [collection] box,” Lucero said.

On Thursday, EcoWaste turned over to the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) 70 boxes and sacks of nontoxic toys and books which it had collected through its “Safe Toy” campaign for kids living in areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

Lucero told the Inquirer that they screened the donated toys for toxic metals using an X-ray fluorescence analyzer before these were turned over to the PPS headed by its president, Dr. Melinda Atienza, for distribution through the society’s Eastern Visayas chapter.

“Our cutoff for donations was on Nov. 30 so we had to sort and test the toys from Dec. 1 to 10,” she said, adding that apart from screening for antimony, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals, they also removed “violent” toys such as toy guns.

Most of the donations, she said, were stuffed and educational toys as well as children’s books. “We were expecting textbooks but there were more story books that children would enjoy reading,” EcoWaste Project Protect coordinator Thony Dizon said.

He added that at least two donors gave several boxes of brand-new toys.

Atienza, meanwhile, thanked EcoWaste for the donation and said it would help children recover from their traumatic experience due to Yolanda.

“May these gifts from big-hearted donors cheer up children who are still coping [with] the loss of their loved ones, and the obliteration of their homes and schools due to the monster typhoon,” she said.

The PPS has started a Yolanda Fund and will hold a concert dubbed, “Tara na! Sama-sama sa pagbuo ng isang … Pasko ng Pag-asa at Saya Alay sa mga Munting Bata” for the benefit of typhoon victims on Dec. 18 at the Philippine International Convention Center.