LEARN TO PLAY ITHUTE GO TSHAMEKA

IMPACT REPORT 2019/2020

“I find power in the potential to impact communities through play; there's magic when working with children in the African outdoors. This is my Botswana, these are our people and they are my why. ” – Priyanka Handa Ram

In 2017, Priyanka founded Learn to Play with the vision to ensure that access to high-quality early childhood development was a right and not a luxury. At the time, Priyanka was a mother to a three-year-old and expecting a second child whilst also being the director of REWA Little Einsteins, a nursery school. However, during her travels around Botswana, she noticed the lack of early learning opportunities for children and felt the urgent need, both as an educator and a mother, to extend her reach beyond REWA to transform the lives of children.

Our mission is to provide high-impact, scalable and sustainable early childhood solutions that unlock every child’s potential through play by training mothers to be the agents for change. We took our first steps with three pilot communities that allowed us to test our model. We learned that the best way forward would be to build strong community partnerships and with that, our steps turned to strides.

Children are at the core of what we do and we aren’t all that different from them. Just like the children we serve, our most crucial years of development will be the first five. In that time, children grow, meet milestones and every now and then, stumble too. In three years, we have opened operations in four communities, fostered positive community relationships, been recognised by global organisations like HundrED and of course, had a few stumbles along the way. However, we have never stopped learning and are eager to continue deepening our impact in existing communities while expanding to new ones.

2021 marks a new chapter in our story, transitioning into a social enterprise by combining REWA Little Einsteins and Learn to Play to capitalise on our experience to effect change. By doing so, we are harnessing paid early learning to fund free early learning. We are excited to have taken this step towards scaling our impact and building a more sustainable organisation.

Our most rewarding moments come when we see children, parents, community leaders and mamaprenuers connecting through the power of play to create vibrant villages.

COVID RESPONSE