Our work with JAAGO Foundation in Bangladesh centres around the importance of play for children’s development. The brief is to design a playground which incorporates a range of learning opportunities in a richly rewarding place.
“We believe play is far more than letting off steam and is a fundamental right of all children, everywhere.”
We've been addressing our assumptions head on... what does play mean in a Bangladesh context? What do playscapes look like? What games do children play?
Who better to ask than the students themselves. Meet Ridoy, he's 6 years old.
(Photo: J. Ashbridge)
Ridoy is the youngest of three children, and lives with his mother and father. His family make icecream and at the weekends he sometimes joins them to sell door to door. From Monday to Friday he attends kindergarten class at one of JAAGO's schools. He's learning the Bangla alphabet, English, maths and art... and dreams of becoming a doctor one day.
Ridoy loves to play games with his friends, everything from 'pani e ebong' (ice-water) which is similar to the British game of stuck in the mud and 'ilish ilish' (fish fish) a two team game involving tiptoeing and guessing who dun'it, to the widely played Bangladeshi favourite 'kutkut' which is a variant of hopscotch.
... but his real favourite is cricket.
We’ll be designing with Ridoy in mind. Find out more about our JAAGO playspace project.
Author: J. Ashbridge