Fun and meaningful efforts to enhance life skills for Thai youth through the power of sports and play
Students from Prayaprasert
School, Bangkok participate in a play day reflecting the theme of teamwork
and unity.
Chananyou Muadmanee, Program Officer
(Life Skills Development Program),
Right To Play Thailand Foundation
If we are to ask children what they enjoy doing the most,
there can be many answers surfacing from this one simple question - like
listening to a fairytale from their parents or spending time playing sports
with their friends. We once were children and had, more or less, been
engaged in different types of fun games. Play is a significant element that
immensely contributes to youth development and growth. It also serves
valuable purpose and a means by which children foster their physical,
intellectual, emotional, social, and moral capacities contributing to their
holistic development.
The power of sports and play has brought Thai
and Burmese students to participate in the Friendship Games where the
concept of appreciating the values of self and others is promoted.
The UN recognizes play as the right of every child. Play
is not a luxury; it is a tool for education and health. It can bring entire
communities together and inspire every individual. A game of football can
teach children about tolerance and peace while a game of tag can teach about
malaria. Play helps teach important life lessons and develop skills like
co-operation, leadership and teamwork. Play provides a retreat from everyday
hardships and brings joy and laughter, allowing children to be children.
Established upon the philosophy that play has the transformative power to
educate and empower children facing adversity, Right To Play was founded in
2000 by Johann Olav Koss, a four-time Olympic gold medalist and social
entrepreneur. As a global organization, Right To Play is headquartered in
Toronto, Canada, and operates in 20 countries, most of which are in less
developed regions.
Through the child-centered learning approach,
students reflect key life skills including teamwork and problem solving.
Through sports and games programs, we help children build
essential life skills and better futures while driving social change in
their communities with lasting impact. Right To Play advocates for Sport for
Development and Peace as embodying the best values of sport, combining other
non-sport components to enhance learning while also representing the notion
that sport is now recognized as a key tool in the development and pursuit of
peace, most notably within the Millennium Development Goals.
In Thailand, Right To Play began implementing programs in 2002 in response
to the challenges faced by young people living in Thai- Burmese refugee
camps. The Sport and Play Program for Burmese Refugees aimed to provide
children and youth, who live in a volatile and uncertain environment, with
the motivation to continue attending school despite the limitations of a
refugee setting. Through dedicated local and international Right To Play
staff many of whom with backgrounds in facilitation and sport for
development, the program trains nursery and primary school teachers in Right
To Play resources so that they may reach children in the formal education
system. Results observed to date include: lower instances of conflict in
schools, higher levels of student attendance and greater use of
child-centered teaching practices by educators.
To promote the holistic development of
children, Right To Play values the concept of youth empowerment where they
are given the opportunity to make their own decisions in the design of
school activities and projects.
The tsunami that ravaged southern Thailand in 2004 was
the impetus for an expansion of Right To Play’s programming to extend its
sphere of influence and commitment to the values of sports and play in
Thailand. Right To Play began this educational program in 2006 shortly after
the natural tragedy with its Response to Tsunami Affected Communities in the
southern provinces of Phuket, Trang and Krabi. This program later evolved
into P’Learn: Learn National Education Program that expanded to Bangkok and
Tak provinces.
Life skills development activity
by Right To Play has been integrated in classroom teaching to create a fun
yet meaningful learning experience for the students.
In 2007, Right To Play Thailand Foundation was registered
as a legitimate entity with the Thai government continuing to implement
programs using sport and play-based activities as an innovative and dynamic
learning tool within a comprehensive and holistic approach to children and
youth education and development. Right To Play Thailand Foundation has
developed and implemented activity-based learning programs associated with
developing life skills through a learner centered and experiential learning
model in partnership with Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC),
Ministry of Education. Under the Life Skills Development Program, Right To
Play is reaching 38 schools in Trang, Satun, Songkla, Phuket, Bangkok and
Nakhon Sawan and engaging more than 400 teachers and 10,000 students through
regular classroom activities and special events.
A key aspect of Right To Play’s innovative methodology is the use of the
Experiential Learning Method developed by David Kolbe, an American Educator.
Right To Play uses a 3 step teaching and learning strategy called
Reflect-Connect-Apply (RCA) that guides learners through a simple three-step
process. Through RCA, learners reflect what they have learned from the play
based activities, connect the learning with their past experience and apply
the learning for future use. This model has also been endorsed by Office of
the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), Ministry of Education to mobilize the
national curriculum with the concept of life skills development and positive
behavior change as part of the key quality of the students.
In addition to school-based programming, Right To Play, with its in-depth
level of implementation, also works with the Department of Juvenile
Observation and Protection, Ministry of Justice, running sports and play
program for more than 500 juvenile delinquents most of whom have been
charged with drug use and possession, and theft, in 4 Youth Rehabilitation
Centers in Trang, Samut Prakarn and Nakhon Pathom. A large number of them
are from separated families and live with a single parent. Most juveniles
reported that they committed the offence because of peer group influence.
Economic pressures create problematic situations in the family and these
situations impact family relations.
Through workshops, onsite coaching and supervision by devoted Right To Play
staff, the youth center staff and volunteers learn to develop skills to
improve their relationship with youth and their approach to rehabilitation
services. They implement adapted Right To Play modules that promote the
intellectual, physical, emotional, and social development in youth through
team building and leadership skill building activities.
One of Right To Play’s underlying principles is to create sustainability in
which we train local people, communities, teachers, and volunteers to run
our programs building their capacity so one day they can be implemented
independently from us. Right To Play work with communities, schools, and
other international NGOs to understand specific challenges they face and
tailor programs to meet their needs whether including livelihoods, financial
literacy, peace promotion, conflict resolution or even hygiene through the
mechanism of sport and play.
In 2013, Right To Play Thailand Foundation has entered into a partnership
with MasterCard Worldwide to run the Financial Fitness and Livelihoods
Learning Program which aims to work with 400 students from Nakhon Sawan
Province and 100 youth from Sirindhorn Juvenile Vocational Training Center
to enhance their life skills, increase their financial literacy and their
entrepreneurial skills.
This is an extension to the existing Financial Fitness program in
collaboration with MasterCard, which was launched in 2012. Seeking to
provide youth with skills and knowledge in financial management and
literacy, Right To Play and MasterCard have thus far hosted two Financial
Fitness week-long summer camps in Bangkok. The camps saw participation from
500 Thai youths, empowering them with essential financial skills related to
decision making, responsibility and negotiation.
All these learning programs with the children and youth are guided by Right
To Play’s mission to use sport and play to educate and empower children and
youth to overcome the effects of poverty, conflict, and disease in
disadvantaged communities. Everyone at Right To Play believes that “When
Children Play, The World Wins”.
Derek Franklin
No sooner has the month of April arrived and people are making plans to
leave Pattaya. Social network sites are full of people, mostly expatriates,
complaining about too much water being wasted and moaning about getting freezing
water thrown over them by passing pick-up trucks.
A
young resident from the Children’s Village.
But for many, Songkran is not just about standing on the side
of the road and throwing water. It is an ancient ceremony to celebrate the
arrival of the new year. A time when people return to their hometowns to spend
time with their families, pay respect to their elders and enjoy the festivities.
Families visit local temples and pour scented water over the statues of the Lord
Buddha; washing away the old and making everything clean for the coming year.
Each year at the start of Songkran, the children from the Father Ray Children’s
Home, Children’s Village and the Drop-In Center gather together, and this year
they were joined by the students from the School for the Blind.
On the morning of Saturday the 13th, the first day of Songkran, the ceremony
started with the cleaning of the statue of Father Ray, founder of the
Foundation. Brother Denis, Vice President of the Foundation, was first to be
invited to wash the statue of his old friend.
Boys being boys they could not
wait to start soaking everyone.
This was then followed by all the children, workers and
foreign volunteers saying a silent prayer before pouring water over the statue
of Buddha. They then passed by the more senior members of the staff and poured
water over their hands and received a sprinkling back in return.
While the traditional ceremony was taking place the younger boys were filling up
their water pistols ready to give everyone a soaking.
The traditional ceremony is a great start to the Songkran festivities, but on
the 19th April all the children from the Father Ray Foundation were standing on
the side of Sukhumvit Road throwing water at passers by and having a great time.
Brother Denis was the first to wash the statue of
Father Ray.
Not quite understanding what is going on, but
looking beautiful.
Pouring water over the hands of the elders is an
important part of the ceremony.
Songkran is not all about throwing
water.
The blind students also took part
in the ceremony.
The Danish volunteers also took
part in the traditional ceremony.
The Drop-In Center kids also
turned up.
There was always someone on hand
to help the blind students.
