Playworks sells toys that invite play and enhance development in children from birth through age five

By Pat Little

This summer my 13 year old daughter and I had the amazing opportunity of spending two weeks in Kenya as volunteers with American Friends of Kenya (AFK). The experience was beyond all expectations. As members of the library team, we traveled to Thika to see the community library being built with funds raised by two high school girls from Tampa, FL. We visited several schools, speaking in classrooms about the benefits of reading. We ran a full day workshop for 35 schools, teaching Dewey Decimal Classification, community involvement and early literacy practices.

With the education team, we visited Starehe Girls School in Nairobi. This great school provides educational opportunities for the poorest girls of Nairobi's slums. Prior to our travel we had shipped an 800-book library, fully catalogued, to this school, and while there we set up the library and taught its use. When we left, the girls and staff, having previously had only a handful of books, were overjoyed with their new functioning library.

Our education team also spent time at several orphanages as well as at the VCK Angels, a daycare center for handicapped children in Korogocho, one of the worst slums. In these places there are no toys, no books, no school supplies. We spent time working on needs assessment so that future shipments from the US would be more efficient and beneficial.

AFK also included a medical team which participated in several health and immunization clinics in the slums.

I was grateful to have the soft Gertie balls provided by Playworks. We brought them into all the settings. My most memorable time was when we visited a remote hut in Maasailand to meet 220 orphans who were seeking sponsorship. Some of these children had walked half a day to meet us. Most of these children had never seen toys. We brought out the Nerf balls and bats and the Gertie balls as well as packs of Pez candy, and in a flash, cultural difference disappeared.

I am now working to raise funds and hoping to return next summer to build upon the work we have started. Thanks you again, Playworks, for your donation. The world has become a smaller place because of your generosity.

Pat Little

P.S. For more information about AFK and its projects, visit their web site at afkinc.org, or contact me at patricialittle140@comcast.net