Morogoro Play, 2019
Earlier this year, members of our team took a trip to Tanzania where we met some truly wonderful people. The trip was a learning experience in that we were reminded of the importance of certain aspects of life that we often begin to take for granted.
One of our favourite days included an excursion to Kilosa, in the region of Morogoro, where we were fortunate enough to meet some very special young people. The village is located in a remote area and most families do not have much; this means that many facets of life which we, in the western world, may sometimes forget to appreciate are seen as a luxury here.
Toys are such luxuries. Children are often required to create toys and play-objects out of the resources which tend to occur naturally in the area. Of course, this means that their toys are not the specially-designed contraptions which most first-world people are used to – which are geared to provide an educative and safe manner in which the child may be able to play.
For us, this is something extremely upsetting. Play is a human right; and although many who live below the poverty line have been managing with fewer resources than their more privileged counterparts, it is disheartening to know that innocent children are unable to afford above-standards methods of play simply because of the circumstances which they happen to have been born into.
Play is one of the fundamental aspects of child development, and there are many children around the world who lack the tools, and toys, which may allow them to expand in this area. Thus, we believe that it is important that organizations to also pay attention to the lesser-explored aspects of community development.
It is through play that children are able to begin to develop many critical social interaction skills. Some of these skills involve:
These are all introduced to us and learned, at this stage of life. Through interacting with other children and structures on the playground we begin to understand how to maneuver our minds, as well as our physical bodies, in order to better understand how to interact with the environment.
This is something which we are passionate about at Give Away A Smile as something as that seems as simple as play may often be overlooked. During our trip, we managed to spend some time handing out toys for the children in the region to be able to play with and were happy to see smiles all around!
