IKEA Korea hosts the Soft Toys for Education campaign

The Soft Toys for Education Campaign is a partnership between IKEA Foundation, UNICEF and Save the Children that aims to provide quality education to children living in poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries. For every soft toy or children’s book sold during the event period, IKEA Foundation will donate €1 to Save the Children and UNICEF.

For over 12 years, the Soft Toys for Education campaign has raised nearly 77 million euros, reaching more than 11 million children through 99 projects in 46 countries.

This year, IKEA will be introducing soft toys designed by kids for the first time through the Soft Toys for Education campaign. Ten winners were chosen at last year’s soft toy drawing competition, and the winning drawings in the competition have been created into soft toys for a new collection called SAGOSKATT.

Meanwhile, the twenty drawings will be selected from the recent soft toy drawing campaign held at the IKEA Gwangmyeong store. They will be sent to Sweden, where they will be evaluated alongside all the submitted drawings from other countries based on uniqueness and commercial potential. A total of ten drawings will be chosen, and the real toys will be created and launched as limited collection the next year.

Per Heggenes, CEO IKEA Foundation stated, “We can only overcome poverty if we make education a priority for all children. We especially need to invest in quality education for girls, children with disabilities and children from minority communities. No child should be left behind.”

In order to support the Soft Toys for Education campaign, IKEA Korea will hold a local soft toy donation campaign during the same period. Customer can choose to donate soft toys that they purchased by putting them into donation boxes located inside the store. The soft toys donated will then be provided to children’s shelters in Gwangmyeong City.

Also, to celebrate the Soft Toys for Education campaign, IKEA Korea will launch Kakao Talk emoticons with IKEA soft toy characters. Four IKEA soft toy characters including TORVA Broccoli, TORVA Carrot, FABLER BJÖRN Soft toy and VANDRING IGELKOTT will now be available for download as Kakao Talk emoticons.