Christmas is approaching. The weather is getting colder, it will soon be snowing... the days are getting darker. Wouldn't it be nice to bring a change to this year's Christmas for children and mothers who cannot have a proper Christmas? Make a child feel special this Christmas!!                    

The Christmas Toy Drive is an annual charity event that the RSU Asian Society and DSiA (Germen Students’ Association) organise by collecting wrapped toys and sweets from RSU students and employees and donate them to children and mothers in crisis centres to share Christmas cheer with them.                        

This project expanded after collaborating with other RSU students’ societies such as AGAPE (Christian Association) and EMSA (European Medical Students’ Association). This year, the project expanded to include children and mothers from ‘Māras Centre’ and children from poverty-stricken families outside of Riga. Māras Centre is a division of the Latvian Samaritan Association, which provides provisional shelter to single mothers with children and also orphaned children aged from a few months to 18 years, which have been abused, mistreated, as well as mothers released from prison.    

Anyone who would like to donate a gift can sign up and hand in the wrapped gift at the Toy Drive stall or in Room C 213 with the name of the recipient(s). To make sure all children will get a gift of similar value, the maximum price of the gift has been recommended around 10 – 15 EUR. Gifts can be toys, sweets, chocolate, puzzles, dolls, toolkits, clothes, board games or anything suitable for the age group of the children.