Fan Ho-hin is having a hard time making up his mind. Presented with a dazzling catalogue of toys, the five-year-old flips back and forth, mulling over his choices before settling on a chess set.
Ho-hin and his mother Man Ting are among the crowd gathered outside a toy library at the weekend, eagerly waiting for it to open. The Love Pleasure Community Toy Library has been hugely popular since it opened last year in Prime View estate, Tuen Mun.
Man, a housewife, says her son looks forward to their visit to the library every week. 'There are so many things to play with. To him, it's just like a toy shop,' she says.
The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals set up the library as part of its neighbourhood services centre, with more than 500 toys donated by companies and individuals. Alerted in 2007 to a dearth of facilities for young families in the area, organisers aimed to give parents and children a chance to do things together while people whose homes are overflowing with toys can share them with families in need, says Heung Yin-kwan, a social worker at the Tuen Mun centre.
Children may check out one item for a week from the toy library or sign up with their parents for a 45-minute play session on the premises.
Since joining the library, Man says she and her husband have stopped buying Ho-hin new toys except on special occasions such as his birthday, saving them about HK$200 per month. And even though her son can have fun with a variety of toys, there's less clutter to deal with at home, she says.
