In Mabona, a small village in Isingiro district in western Uganda, 6-year-old Jerome, dashes out of his home holding a ball fashioned from dry banana fibres. He builds two makeshift goalposts at both ends of the front yard out of dry cassava cuttings, drops the ball in between the goalposts and invites his mother, Liliane Ntereire, to join him in playing football.
Less than a minute into the game, Jerome outpaces Ntereire and scores. He brings the ball back to the centre of the pitch and shows his mother how she should play to score.
“You have to move the ball in a direction opposite to your goalpost,” he says.
Ntereire is allowing Jerome to show her how he wants to play. In doing so, she is encouraging him to independently explore his unique way of learning. This is a skill that Ntereire has developed which can be incredibly rewarding for her son.
The game resumes after Jerome kicks the ball in the direction of Ntereire's goal. With one hand keeping her floral skirt away from her feet, Ntereire sprints after her lively son, trying to wrestle the ball out of his control.
A year ago, the idea of playing with Jerome seemed like a waste of time to Ntereire, as she didn't understand the value it held in her son’s development. Now, she joins him in playing a game, one that he gets to choose independently, at their home as part of their family routine.
This change in the family home came about when Ntereire participated in the Play to Grow programme implemented in Uganda and Tanzania by Right To Play, an international non-governmental organisation that protects, educates, and empowers children to rise above adversity through the power of play.
The programme equips parents and caregivers of children aged three to six with skills and support to foster their children's social and emotional learning and early literacy and numeracy through play. Parents learn how to build children’s self-esteem, how to reflect emotions, how to set limits, and how to support their children’s learning. This is a cause with increasing importance in these countries, where some children struggle to access schools.
“We have parents who say children used to hide from them, and that is no more,” Andrea Diaz-Varela, global education specialist at Right To Play, says. “This is what this programme set out to achieve – to promote parenting approaches underpinned by love.”
Ntereire along with over 200 other parent educators in Uganda and Tanzania, were picked to deliver the programme because of their routine contact with the children and parents in their communities.
They also facilitate parent support group sessions, with the goal of promoting parent's well-being through sharing of experiences and self-care activities to support stress management through relaxation and mindfulness. They also visit homes to see the parents and children playing together. Ntereire helps her son develop the same skills through play.
“I did not know play was this useful and I stopped my son from playing,” she says. “I thought I had other important things to do instead of playing with him.”
Ntereire says the programme, which was implemented in seven refugee settlements and urban communities in Uganda and Tanzania, is helping parents and children navigate complex situations. “I never used to talk much with my son, but he now tells me stories,” she says. Ntereire feels that play has not only strengthened the bond between her and her son but also increased his self-esteem. “Our relationship has improved, and he now overcomes many challenges by opening up to me because he knows that I listen,” Ntereire adds.
Play helps improve the child-parent relationship. This is supported by a recent evaluation of the Play to Grow programme that showed parents reporting positive child-parent relationships increased from 42% to 69% in Tanzania, and 70% to 84% in Uganda after this intervention. Ntereire says play is also yielding better learning outcomes for her son. “Because I let him choose the games we play, he is learning better at school,” she says. Being able to make those choices enables Ntereire's son to build his confidence, giving him space to use his voice and agency, a key skill to nurture in his development.
As part of the programme, parents are helped to cultivate skills including but not limited to acknowledging a child's emotions and letting them take control in playing, setting limits for behaviour, building self-esteem, and keeping daily routines for sleeping, waking up, eating, and playing. Parents are trained to make literacy, language, and numeracy skills development a playful part of everyday household activities.
The Play to Grow programme was developed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when families globally struggled with high stress levels and violence. To contain the pandemic, Uganda closed schools for nearly two years – the longest school closure worldwide.
“We wanted something that addressed the needs of the children and parents,” Diaz-Varela says. “Right To Play has been helping teachers use play-based learning, but we also wanted to facilitate parents with the same skills, because they are a child’s first teacher and influencer.”
Source: BBC News
Author: Right To Play
(Reposted for sharing purposes. If there is any copyright issue, please contact us to remove.)
FaithKiddo operates as a premier manufacturing facility in China, empowering global brands, wholesalers, and distributors with integrated OEM and ODM solutions.
We focus on producing non-toxic XPE, EVA, and TPU play mats, play tents, toys, wall decor, and floor protection products designed for children aged 0–13.
Key Capabilities:
1.China Factory-Direct Supply Chain: Eliminates intermediary costs to optimize margin.
2.Scalable Customization: Tailored private labeling, structural design, and prototyping.
3.Rigorous Quality Control: Export-compliant standards paired with reliable global fulfillment.