The April issue of 25A Magazine, featured Childsplay International (CPI) in a story about our play-based learning workshops including storytelling.

It cites our recent work in places like Haiti and Pakistan, and our collaboration with great organizations and experts on the ground. 25A also touches on our work to help provide girls education.

The story appears among exciting feature articles, high-end art write-ups, ads for luxury cars, diamonds, private jets and dream vacations!

CPI helps vulnerable children around the world realize the benefits of play – like learning storytelling, participating in song an dance, developing physical strength, and expressing one’s feelings through play-based learning.

This dramatized CPI’s far-flung, intensive projects to benefit vulnerable kids through play and playful learning such as mask-making workshops. But, of course, the pictures of so many happy kids really said it all.

We thank 25A Magazine, Lonee Telemaque for the top-shelf art direction, and Adam Kluger PR for recognizing the importance of featuring nonprofits such as ours alongside beautiful images of movers and shakers on New York’s Gold Cost and Palm Beach/Miami. Vulnerable children in many countries benefit so much from donors in these markets. All our proceeds go to organize and facilities workshops on mask-making, puppetry and storytelling. 

Excerpts from  25A Magazine’s Coverage.

ChildsPlay International believes that play can be educational and therapeutic. They have demonstrated this in hardscrabble refugee camps, remote mountain villages, and countries disrupted by social strife, poverty, and disease, including HIV/AIDS.

“In Haiti, Peru, Pakistan, Ghana, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, ChildsPlay International works with local teachers and leaders to promote sustainable, culturally appropriate programs that enhance kids’ lives.”

CPI’s Global Work Goes Back Over a Decade.

CPI’s track record goes back over a decade. We have been written up in the humanitarian magazine, Living City.  Phenomenal people have joined our Advisory Board. For example, Mara Krachevsky of Harvard’s Project Zero and Dr. Jean-Elie Gilles, a leading authority on French literature, Haitian history and culture. Dr. Gilles is Jacmel’s representative to UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network.

Susan Linn and Play-based Learning.

We are also working with Dr. Susan Linn, an internationally recognized expert on play-based learning. Her work on the impact of Big Tech on children’s development is recognized globally and Dr. Linn’s books are translated into languages Korean and Chinese. Dr. Linn and CPI are creating webinars that will help teachers integrate puppetry into the classroom. This will enable children globally to use puppets in everyday activities such as show-and-tell.

CPI Works with Local Experts in Every Country.

We identify local experts, and work with them closely in our play-based activities to help vulnerable children. The latest example is in Haiti where we first operated in 2012. Now we are establishing a sustainable mask-making workshop under the direction of Dider Civil. He is a renowned artist and professional mask-maker and advocate of education for vulnerable children. 

Girls’ Education.

Girls’ Education is included in everything ChildsPlay does. In Haiti, for the first time, girls are trained and included in top-tier mask-making education. The children learn a culturally relevant skill that could lead to permanent employment. In a troubled place like Haiti, these are major accomplishments. Didier is helping CPI bring these workshops to countries in Asia and Africa, where mask-making is also part of traditional culture.

One important effect of our work, apart from directly helping kids, is that we help to conserve local cultures from encroaching, digital homogeneity. 

Making Our Storytelling Program Available to Everybody.

We share our experience freely and have made available detailed instructional manuals on how to organize storytelling events and mask-making workshops. An all-girls school in the DRC has incorporated our Storytelling Program into their extracurricular activities. We are in talks with school districts, NGOs and schools in many countries around the world for the fall semester rollout.

How You Can Help.

Visit our website www.childsplayintl.org for more information.