NPAW 2020 Highlights The Importance of Play Amidst the Time of Pandemic

In the face of global pandemic and natural disasters, our daily lives have been put to a standstill and many children have lost access to play. Because of this, a huge part of children’s activity, creativity and learning have come to a pause affecting their holistic development and overall wellbeing. Moreover, some have placed play within the limiting context of “laru-laro lang”. With this, play advocates continuously address the misleading notion and provide the right perspective that play should be given priority as it is considered one of the basic rights of children as stated in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Be a Play Champion! Unilab Foundation and partners invite everyone to be part of this year’s ‘Play Advocacy Week’

Every child should have access to play. Be it disaster or disease, children are exposed to different situations where they become vulnerable, and they are forced to put their childhood on hold. They may already be suffering from trauma and distress, and there is often no space or opportunity for them to play.

Unilab Foundation believes that play is essential to a child’s holistic development, which is why Play It Forward (PIF) was launched in 2012. All of PIF’s activities are designed to highlight play and its significance to the mental health of children, especially in vulnerable situations. Play It Forward uses therapeutic play to provide psychosocial support to pediatric patients and to children in post-disaster or disaster-prone communities.

This year, PIF takes play further with Play Advocacy Week 2018, a week-long campaign to encourage everyone to take play seriously and to explore how play can be integrated in today’s society. Happening from November 18 to 24, Play Advocacy Week 2018 aims to make the public recognize the importance of play in a child’s holistic development.