Cotlands is supporting the 20th World Play Day in South Africa and would like to invite all institutions (corporates, universities and schools) in South Africa to participate in a fun-filled 20-minute play session with fellow- colleagues, students and learners. The play session will only take 20 minutes of your day and sessions should be conducted between midday and 2pm on Tuesday, 28 May 2019.
World Play Day is an annual event, inspired by the International Toy Library Association (ITLA) and is celebrated in over 40 countries around the world. This year’s theme for World Play Day is “Play is a right”. In January 1993, South Africa signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child with 194 other countries and recognised the importance of “Play as a right”.
There are around five million young children in South Africa that are recipients of social grants1 with very little access to early learning opportunities. Cotlands’ goal is to address the early learning needs of all vulnerable children by setting up 500 educational toy libraries by 2022. Having a positive impact in poor and marginalised communities and changing the trajectory of a child’s life is key to our purpose.
Dr Monica Stach, CEO of Cotlands says, “Through our cost-effective early learning programmes we have statistical data that shows how Cotlands has a positive impact on children’s learning outcomes. These positive outcomes show a significant improvement in emergent numeracy and emergent literacy skills after six-months of exposure to our early learning programmes. If we collectively invest today, we can create an equitable cohesive society for the future. The most important part starts with creating a solid play-based early learning foundation that helps children thrive later in life.”
There are numerous benefits to play. Play is fun, it energising, it helps us connect better with others and it enables us to collaborate and think more creatively. Cotlands encourages everyone to register on the Cotlands website and donate R20 per player to engage in 20 minutes of play with fellow play champions. All monies raised will enable Cotlands to set up more toy libraries in partnership with others, and early learning playgroups in under-resourced communities. Help Cotlands ignite potential through play for children on 28 May by celebrating World Play Day .
Date: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Cost: R20 per player
Time: 12:00 – 14:00 (20-minute play session to take place during these times)
Share videos of your 20-minute play sessions on social media on the day and use the #WorldPlayDay2019 #Cotlands.
Contact:
Natalie Frank
National Marketing and Communications manager
Email: natalie@cotlands.org
Address: 9 Data Crescent Ormonde
Website: www.cotlands.org
About Cotlands
Cotlands is a registered non-profit early childhood development organisation with a rich heritage of over 80 years of experience in serving young, vulnerable children. Cotlands vision is to see children thrive in their pre-school years by increasing their access to play-based early learning opportunities. Cotlands provides scalable and cost-effective toy libraries and early learning playgroups targeted at children from birth to six years. The organisation also focuses on enabling parents and educating early learning facilitators on play based learning and best practice principles. Cotlands has regional offices in six provinces across South Africa (Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and North West).
About ITLA
International Toy Library Association was created in 1990 in Torino during the 5th International Toy Library Conference. The association is registered under Belgian law as a non-profit international organisation open to any association or individual who supports our aims. ITLA is committed to the belief that play, play things and playful interaction are essential to optimal educational, physical, psychological, social and cultural development and wellbeing.
Leave a Reply