The power of play
Right from infancy, children have a natural potential to learn about their environment through play. As they grow up in today’s dynamic world, it becomes more important for them to build holistic skills which can help them thrive in future.
For refugee and host community children whose education and social development has been affected by crisis, the need for positive experiences and coping skills that can counterbalance negative factors in their lives is critical.
The Consortium
The PlayMatters project is being implemented by a consortium led by the International Rescue Committee, and includes Plan International, War Child Holland, Innovations for Poverty Action, the Behavioural Insights Team in Partnership with the LEGO Foundation.
About PlayMatters
PlayMatters’ top-line goal is to sustainably integrate LtP as an active teaching method in pre-primary and primary schools to improve the holistic and psychosocial well-being of refugee and host community children aged 3-12+ in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania. Since the launch of the project in January 2020, PlayMatters has approached this goal via its core mandate (that is., LtP in protracted refugee contexts), a parallel emergency mandate (for instance., LtP in acute humanitarian response), and a focus on evidence generation on LtP in emergencies.
Core Mandate: LtP Systems Integration in Protracted Refugee Contexts
For decades, underfunded government and humanitarian education systems in East Africa’s refugee-hosting geographies have contributed to a learning crisis for generations of children. As a teacher professional development program, PlayMatters has strengthened government and humanitarian education systems, iteratively building an enabling environment for the integration of LtP as a teaching method into education policies and systems while also partnering with local education actors to deliver the PlayMatters’ Core Package. Check out the LtP Library for these resources.
Emergency Mandate: LtP in Acute Humanitarian Response
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020-2022 civil war in Northern Ethiopia, PlayMatters collaborated with the LEGO Foundation to integrate LtP into two wide-scale acute humanitarian responses, leading to the following: 1) PlayMatters developed and deployed PlayMatters@Home packets; 2) PlayMatters worked with partners to deliver a $15M, 1-year multi-sectoral Emergency Response Mechanism (PlayMatters ERM) in Northern Ethiopia reaching 177,409 children in 201 schools; and 3) PlayMatters supported the Ethiopian government to integrate LtP into accelerated education programming in conflict-affected Tigray. By harnessing learnings from these activities, PlayMatters has developed a set of open-source, globally relevant LtP materials for acute humanitarian response. Check out the LtP Library for these resources.
Evidence Generation on LtP in Emergencies
PlayMatters’ activities have been consistently accompanied by a set of rigorous research studies, ranging from formative studies to implementation research, to systems research, to Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), thereby iteratively building the evidence base on LtP in the Education in Emergencies sector. Check out our Publications page for more information.
What we mean by Learning through Play?
For PlayMatters, Learning through Play (LtP) is an active teaching and learning method in which children learn through guided, hands-on, meaningful, play-based interactions in safe and inclusive environments.
PlayMatters Core Package
The PlayMatters Core Package illustrates the key inputs that are necessary to ensure that children's holistic skills improve, in line with the project framework. All three countries will integrate LEGO's "Six Bricks" concept into their packages, with strategic support provided by the Care For Education.
To explore more about the power of learning through play visit: www.learningthroughplay.com
Where we are working
