Christmas Gift Drive
Foster Hope collects new, unwrapped Christmas presents for children in foster care throughout New Zealand. Many children enter into emergency service facilities during the Christmas period and we would love your support. Sadly the festive season is a peak time for child protection agencies that are faced daily with the reality and severity of Child Abuse, Neglect and Crisis in our local communities.
Our aim is to bring a little bit of sunshine and hope to our most vulnerable children when often hope is lost and grief and depression invade their little lives. If you would like to donate a present (unwrapped please) check our drop off points throughout the country.
While our official cut-off date is the 10th of December, it would be wonderful to have the bulk of the presents in by the 1st of December. This will give us time to distribute them to social workers around the country who can then purchase any shortfalls.
Download our Christmas Flyer below for your office.
If you’re stuck for gift ideas, check out our B Awesome Christmas flyer.
We follow very strict guidelines allocated by the agencies and therefore we have provided a list below:
New toys only
Gifts must not be weapon or food orientated
Gifts are to be up to the value of $30.00
The toys must not mention mum, dad or families
There is no size limit as they will be wrapped separately from the backpacks
Please no gifts requiring batteries
Please do not wrap presents as all gifts have to be checked by a qualified co-ordinator. Gift bags, or cellophane are a good option if you still wanting to package a gift up.
We will be providing presents from new-born children through to 18 year olds for both boys and girls. The children come from a wide range of backgrounds and we generally always end up with a shortfall of presents for new-born to 4-year-olds and 12 to 18-year-olds.
When we wrap the presents the kids receive a larger (greater value toy) and a smaller (cheaper value present) wrapped together so the cost of your present won’t limit what a child will receive we will be using a wide range of gifts.
Drop off points are listed clearly on the website.
Some of our branches around the country have set up a “Sponsor an age group for $250” which allows us to go out and buy exactly the gifts that we need for each section. As this is also tax deductible your dollar will go a lot further.
Let’s start some prepping for a pretty amazing Christmas for some incredibly vulnerable kids around New Zealand.
Here are some gift ideas which our social workers have suggested:
Toy cars and trucks are always a hit with little ones
Lego sets
Snuggle Rug
Beach bags, beach towels and jandals
Jewellery for ages 7 – 18 (all department stores have trinkets that are not expensive), or Jewellery making kits
Jewellery Boxes or Make-up Purse – with a something like a bracelet in it e.g. elastic with beads & a charm on it and/or moisturiser, bath gel etc.
Craft kits are useful for days that the children cannot go outside due to weather
Balls – rugby, soccer etc. that they can kick around with other kids
For kids aged 10-18, headphones (available from shops like The Warehouse and Kmart)
For teenagers, toiletry sets (available from department stores like The Warehouse and Kmart)
