Learn By Play
During this pandemic, we have kept our children in the after-school programmes, nightshelter and group homes active through activities given by Toy Bank, a non-profit in Indiathat impacts kids through Play2Learn and Play2Smile programmes. These activitieshelp kids in improving their mental and behavioural well-being and resilience building.
Toy Bank’s learning through play is used to teach kids numerals, communication, listeningskills, observation skills, fine motor skills, critical thinking, problem-solving, mentalstimulation and life skills like empathy. These activities help children to stay active andlearn new things everyday.
Shabdha* lives with her sister and parents in Kamathipura, a red-light area in Mumbai.During outreach in 2019, our staff found that she was living in an at-risk area and neededshelter. Since then Shabdha has stayed at the night-shelter and has been proactive in theafter-school programme. Due to the lockdown, children had to go back and live with theirparents and this has stunted their holistic development. In the past few months,Shabdha has enjoyed the activities given from Toy Bank. She even gathered a group offriends who do not have phones to access the activities and requested our staff to arrangea space for them to do activities together. For children like Shabdha, activities from ToyBank has been something to look forward to every week!
*name changed