Recycled toys

At AVO the women that weave bring their children with them. Very quickly into our placement we noticed that there was a lack of resources available to entertain the children, during the long hours they spend here day to day.

The levels of creativity within our group enabled us to come up with ideas on how we could provide such resources in order to create an enjoyable environment for the children.

We started by going out around Koudougou collecting bottle caps from the floor and used rice sacks from shops.

We spent a whole day giving our collected resources a thorough wash in preparation for them to be made into toys.

We took the rice sacks to be sewn together and used them as somewhere for the children to sit during community meals as we realised there were so many children who came for food and there was no where for them to sit, so this idea worked very well.

One member of the team had brought in used fish tins from home and created toy cars using these, bottle tops and string. Another member of the team collected bits of wire and also created a toy car.

Using the bottle caps we also created a toy snake and from the bottles we made rockets; we also used plastic plates and created frisbees.

Following this, we taught children how to make the cars. We used iron to shape the body of the car and then thin pieces of rubber were used to connect the pieces of iron together. In the beginning it was difficult but gradually the task became easier. Three hours later, the children were able to make the toys and we were very happy.

These toys have been in constant use and therefore we created more. Not only did we provide the children with resources to entertain them but it also allowed us to show the women and staff at AVO that it doesn’t have to cost money to provide physical resources for children to play with, we stressed the importance of using recycled materials and your imagination.

After that, we provided AVO staff with lessons on childhood development. We emphasized that children's games should allow the integration of the concept "PIES" which means that the game must allow the child's physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. We carried out a child development class with the staff at AVO which provided them with ideas about creating activities and toys. This allowed us to provide information to the members of AVO hopefully leading to a sustainable change.