Sisters' toy story brings joy to kids

Sisters Shani (left) and Erika Jones collected toys throughout the year to donate to children without Christmas gifts. Photo / John Borren

Seventy-eight children will have a better Christmas thanks to two sisters with big hearts.

Shani Jones and her sister Erika wanted to do something for the children who did not get any gifts at Christmas, so saved up money each week throughout the year to stockpile presents.

Shani, 26, said she realised last Christmas there were huge numbers of children who did not get any Christmas presents at all.

"There's a lot of work going on in different ways for food parcels and bringing people necessities but it's something really special for children to open a Christmas present. It's the excitement and the anticipation that brings a sense of happiness."

The sisters put a post on a local Facebook buy-and-sell page asking people to give them names of children and families who would not be getting anything for Christmas.

"The response we had was absolutely massive... there were other people that saw the post and said they were really keen to help. There's a woman in Papamoa who redresses teddy bears, she gave us some bears she had made clothing for, they were really cute. There were others that said they would like to adopt a family."

Shani said she and her sister bought a huge range of presents from clothing to Bratz dolls, targeting big sales to get bang for their buck. The Jones sisters had so many families nominated they ran out of toys. Many of the families the sisters helped had five or more children.

"A lot of people said things like they had presents but they got stolen or they had to leave their house because their landlord wanted to move back in so they had no money to buy anything. There were other families living in very small or confined spaces with four or five children.

"It was satisfying, very humbling and very revealing in that there's a lot of need you don't see in every day life."

Shani said Christmas was important to her because of her faith.

"It's an essential time in that it's meant to be a time of hope. That in itself is a driving force."

Erika, 29, said Shani's idea to give presents to children started small but quickly became a passion.

"We didn't grow up with a lot, but we always had something. I never actually thought about kids having absolutely nothing."

Erika said the final tally was 78 children helped, and they had to turn families away.