After working in the corporate sector for seven years, Vidyun, inspired by her father, started her own venture called The Toy Bank, an initiative to collect and distribute toys among deprived children. Vidyun believes in the ideology of learning and teaching through playing and the importance of toys as educational tools. Additionally, she has helped reduce 350,000 tons of carbon footprint through the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Vidyun Goel is the Founder-Director of The Toy Bank, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting learning and teaching through playing and ensuring the right to play for every child. They accomplish this by creating gender-neutral toy libraries for children up to 10 years of age.

Delving into the details of her venture, Vidyun shares that The Toy Bank was launched 15 years ago when she was in college. She often witnessed how urban households were full of excess toys, leading to overconsumption, whereas children in rural areas had never seen toys. Vidyun describes how toys play an important role in a kid's life and how they can be used as educational tools. Through her initiative, Vidyun collects and distributes toys across India—26 states and 6 UTs—and has impacted more than 5 lakh children.

The toys are dispatched to schools, ‘anganwadis’, shelter homes, orphanages, educational centers, etc. By toys, Vidyun also implies sports equipment, board games, colors, and storybooks. They have also developed their own play curriculum for anganwadis and for government schools up to 5th standard. The Toy Bank, as Vidyun explains, helps build a  basic foundation in students and takes it to all subjects like English, Hindi, Maths, and Science.

In government schools, The Toy Bank creates playrooms for kids and appoints teachers accordingly. Vidyun also sheds light on the New Education Policy, highlighting how learning by play is  an integral part of the policy. They currently teach 3000+ students and run five-year programs that have shown improvement in skill sets by 70% in a year.

Her inspiration to come into this field stemmed from her home, where her father, a social activist, would often take Vidyun to slum areas and distribute toys taken from their home. Inspired by her father, Vidyun soon started collecting toys from her friends and neighbors. During college, she set up her first collection center, at a time when social media was not fully developed. Vidyun would call school principals, connect with the authorities, and enlighten students about the joy of giving and the importance of the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The Toy Bank collects toys from the privileged schools via collection centers and through tie-ups with 150 private schools.

Vidyun shares her experience about how students have happily contributed to the initiative and how they have been able to increase the lifespan of toys through recycling. She claims that The Toy Bank has saved 3,50,000 tons of carbon footprint via its initiatives. The venture has grown organically and volunteers also take part to carry this initiative forward.

Reflecting on her early days, Vidyun shares that she was born and brought up in Delhi where she also completed her schooling. She went on to study Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce followed by an MBA in Finance from IMT Ghaziabad. Vidyun dedicated seven years to corporate life before transitioning to running The Toy Bank full-time.

Reflecting on her childhood memories, Vidyun shares how she enjoyed her time growing up with her friends. She remembers traveling with her parents to historical places across India. Vidyun also recollects her father taking her to slum areas which later played a role in shaping her journey.

When asked about her role models, Vidyun says she draws inspiration from her parents who happen to be her biggest role models. She admires her father for his ability to never give up, think outside the box, and for his pure heart in this competitive world. Vidyun looks up to her mother for her hard work, dedication, and the ability to accomplish many things in a single day.

Vidyun finds motivation in the quote, “My hands might be small, but they are my own,” which means every human being can contribute in their own way to society. She stands and abides by this quote to date.

Highlighting her achievements, Vidyun says though awards are a great source of appreciation, what she considers as achievements are the smiles on children’s faces when they touch the toys for the first time. Contributing and creating a positive impact on the lives of 500000+ children has been her greatest achievement.

Advising the youth, Vidyun suggests they step outside the world of social media, stop comparing themselves to others, and explore as much as they can. She also advises them to network and meet people from various fields which will help them unlearn.

In the end, Vidyun advises everyone to log onto her website toybank.in and find their nearest collection center. The organization also conducts collection drives in societies and schools. Vidyun also calls out companies to reach out to her as a part of their CSR initiative.