Right to Play: Leveraging play-based programs in crisis for learning continuity and well-being

• In Event: Adapting Learning through Play in Acute Emergencies: Resources, Strategies, and Evidence for Rapid Implementation

Proposal

Right to Play (RTP) delivers play-based programs that promote children’s learning and well-being. Though primarily operating in protracted crises, the realities of climate change, increased conflict, and chronic insecurity in many contexts across our global portfolio requires RTP be prepared to adapt programs to respond to sudden onset crises.

Between June and August 2022, torrential monsoon rains and glacier melting caused the most severe flooding in Pakistan in 30 years. Millions were affected, including lives lost and people injured, and extensive damage to schools severely impacted education. The disaster also significantly affected children and their families’ mental health and psychosocial well-being due to the trauma of separation from or death of loved ones, homes, and livelihoods. Children in particular are vulnerable to protection concerns during emergencies due to separation from caregivers, and are negatively affected by various factors including reduced access to education (Kousky, 2016; Yousuf et al., 2023; Cheema et al., 2023).

RTP responded by providing psychosocial support and non-formal education to protect affected children. Coordination was critical, as RTP Pakistan engaged with the Disaster Risk Reduction working group of Sindh Education and Literacy Department, Sindh Provincial Disaster Management Authority, emergency cluster systems led by the government and UN agencies and reached out to communities to identify key areas of need and priorities for children. The emergency response focused on providing psychosocial support to children who were forced to leave their homes and schools, take shelter in relief camps, and access education in temporary learning centres (TLCs). RTP's "Psychosocial Wellbeing Through Play" training package equipped teachers and coaches to apply play-based approaches to psychosocial support, covering child and youth wellbeing, safe play spaces, support services, parental engagement, and self-care. It includes a resource book with activities to develop social-emotional skills for ages 6 to 18. Trained RTP coaches visited the TLCs every day, helping approximately 3,000 children deal with their fears, developing positive coping strategies and the ability to manage their emotions, and build resilience so they can return to formal education in school. In addition, RTP provided WASH/Sanitation kits to 1,000 affected households.

Similar rapid adaptations have been managed in Lebanon, Mozambique, and Palestine, despite projects not being designed to respond to sudden onset crises. In 2024, Right to Play is developing an Education in Emergencies (EiE) global strategy to roll out across the 14 country programmes. In its development, the EiE strategy aims to learn from and build on the community instincts, capacities, and response of prior rapid adaptations.
In this presentation, RTP will share key learnings from prior program adaptations during emergencies, and how these learnings have fed into the development of the EiE strategy. RTP will then share key reflections from the EiE strategy development and roll-out, primarily focusing on the below questions:
- How can approaches rooted in localisation improve organizational readiness to respond to acute emergencies?
- What is the role of play-based approaches in acute emergencies, and how do we best sequence this for longer term EiE responses and protracted crises?

Authors

• Myuri Komaragiri, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto

• Henry Gathercole, Right To Play