Presents for children in detention – December 2014

ChilOut – Nationwide

We won’t be having a toy drive this year but every cent of your contribution goes towards getting children out of immigration detention. Our gift, hopefully, is freedom for all children, including those held on Nauru. Donate now.

South Australia + Nationwide

After the amazing success of Sarah Hanson Young's 'Toys for Nauru' campaign in 2013, this Christmas they're running a toy drive for kids in detention in Australia. They were absolutely blown away by your generosity a year ago and, for more details about how you can donate to a child in detention this year, please click here.

Melbourne

Shoe box drive

'Shoe box' appeal delivering toys to kids and presents for adult detainees in Broadmeadows. Details here.

Brisbane

RAC introduces Teddy Bears Without Borders

The latest campaign supported by RAC aims to receive 800 handmade teddy bears, one for each child in Australia's immigration detention network. While we work to change the system which visits such sadness on children, Teddy Bears Without Borders is hoping to give each child a teddy to help soothe themselves through tough times.

RAC QLD encourages people to make their own teddy bears and drop them off in collection locations across Brisbane and south east Queensland. Patterns and specifications are available from the Teddy Bears Without Borders website

Money for Xmas presents appeal

GoFundMe

Darwin

End of Year Presents for Children in Detention

The end of the year is a time when children all over Australia receive gifts. Help us show children in detention that they are not forgotten. DASSAN is coordinating a present drive to the more than 200 children here in detention

CAN YOU HELP?

You can DONATE to the present drive  - donate by direct deposit to: 
DASSAN  (Bendigo Bank)
BSB: 633-000,
Account Number :143875664 -
Cheques can be sent to:
DASSAN, PO Box. 1695 Nightcliff NT 0814
write “ children’s presents’ in the subject line

We are looking for people who can HELP SHOP for presents, WRAP presents and WRITE ON CARDS (on the afternoon of Saturday 13th) and DELIVER presents (in the third week of December)
Contact - Vivienne or

Details here.

Guidelines for presents

(many thanks to Asylum Seekers on Christmas Island (ASCI) for allowing us to use their text)

Cultural Resources & Current Media

• Reading, listening and visual materials in native languages are very much sought after.
• Current magazines and newspapers are very well received though difficult to get on Christmas Island.

Australian resources

The asylum seekers are very keen to learn all about Australia - everything from native animals, to climate to landmarks to food and culture, so any books or resources about the country will be very popular. The more pictures the better!

CDs & DVDs

All detention centres have TVs and DVD players but actual media is lacking so a good selection of movies would be great!
Please consider the content of movies being sent - sex scenes, nudity, graphic war scenes, excessive violence and culturally insensitive material are examples of inappropriate content.

Examples of suitable items:

• Children's movies and cartoons
• Mainstream pop music and various hip hop artists 
  (please don't send CDs with excessive explicit lyrics!)

OTHER MUCH NEEDED DONATIONS

Prepaid Phone Credit

Donations of prepaid international phone credit/calling cards for making calls to families overseas.

Games, Craft & Toys

All manner of art and craft materials are always popular - the kids in particular are very creative!
In particular:

• Skeins of coloured wool 
  Bright colours including white and black which are used to make bracelets and jewellery ornaments. Wool is good because you don't need scissors to cut it.
• Pencils, marking pens, paints, paintbrushes and drawing pads

Please note however that any kind of wire (such as that contained in pipecleaners) as well as scissors, sewing needles, knitting needles or any other sharp implement are not allowed within centres, so just bear that in mind when considering what material you'd like to send.

Games such as:

• Packs of cards. They can spend hours playing cards!
• UNO
• Boardgames
  in particular Ludo, Chess and Jenga, backgammon, checkers, quoits, snakes & ladders and Guess Who. If anyone knows where to find Monopoly is other languages, that would be fantastic!!
• Puzzle books are also a great way to keep the mind active and wile away the hours. Sudoku is great because it doesn't require any knowledge of English.

Sporting goods:

• rubber balls, tennis balls, soccer balls, yoyos, volleyballs (volleyball is especially popular and there are courts on both compounds on Christmas Island)

Children range in age from toddlers to teens, and while they do not have many toys as such, games that involve group  participation are always great for example Twister. More often than not there is more than one child in a family, so its often better to send toys that are able to be shared!

Personal Items

Sorry no used clothing allowed. Please send new clothing such as:

• sunglasses, sunhats, tee-shirts, shorts, shoes, light scarves
• Clothes and covered shoes for children of all ages
• Headscarves, full length skirts, women's long sleeved tops

A few things to note when donating clothes...

• While not all female asylum seekers are Muslim, the majority of ladies do dress relatively modestly with short if not long sleeved tops.
  
• As a tropical island, the weather can be very hot and very humid during the day and into the evenings. Lighter materials are preferable.
  

For Women

Beauty products are great for spoiling the women a little bit - they love a beauty night as much as the next girl!
In particular:

• - eyeliners and shadows
• - cottonballs
• - henna
• - waxing strips (these are particularly popular).

Please remember, nothing in glass bottles.

Ideas for toys

Chalk toys

Parent Direct

Both have free postage on their toys until Christmas!

Note on wrapping

Do not wrap presents, they need to be inspected by detention centre staff. Hence the reason for shoe box appeals – a brightly coloured shoe box, decorate with contact or wrapping paper but do not seal (with a lid that can be lifted off for easy inspection).