The soft toys left in memory of the children who died in the MH17 air disaster have found a new destination.

They have been donated to the foundation Give a Soft Toy which helps children with cystic fibrosis.

The foundation has been given around 2,000 of the soft toys left at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, Eindhoven airport where the coffins of the victims were landed and in Hilversum where the bodies were taken for identification.

The decision to give them to Give a Soft Toy was made by the Air Disaster MH17 foundation. ‘It was important to us that the toys were not destroyed,’ the foundation’s Evert van Zijtveld told the AD. ‘They are a symbol of the sorrow and disbelief of all of us.’

Give a Soft Toy’s Laura Westerbrink told the paper she does not yet know whether the toys will be passed on to sick children or sold and the proceeds used to help them.

Children who are given the toys and their parents will not know where they came from, she said. The toys have been cleaned and the cards removed.

Two teams are investigating the downing of flight MH17 in July 2014. The Joint Investigation Team is carrying out the criminal investigation and the Dutch safety council is looking into the cause of the crash.