EVENTSIMPORTANCE OF PLAYPLAY2LEARNSAFE SPACE
On August 23, 2025, The Opentree Foundation’s flagship project, Toybank, celebrated its 21st Foundation Day, at SS Sahney School, Khar, marking over two decades of championing play as an essential part of every child’s life. The milestone was celebrated in the most fitting way possible: by bringing the joy of games, stories, and creativity to more than 1,000 children, with the support of our incredible volunteers.
This year’s celebration was not just about distributing games, but about immersing our volunteers in the true essence of our mission: using play and play-based learning to build life skills that prepare children for life.
A Day of Play, Learning, and Fun
The day began with a special pep-up session for all volunteers. This wasn’t just an orientation, but an opportunity for them to experience what our play sessions with children feel like. Through interactive activities, volunteers got a glimpse into the power of play and why it is not just about fun, but about creating safe, nurturing spaces where children can express themselves freely.
After this, the volunteers were divided into groups and sent into classrooms to assist our play workers in play sessions. These sessions are part of our Life Skills Play Programme, which carefully curates games based on the age, interests, and competence levels of children. Each game is thoughtfully selected to strengthen skills such as communication, problem-solving, resilience, empathy, and teamwork. What may appear as a simple board game or group activity to an outsider, is in fact a tool for building critical life skills that shape confident, empathetic, and curious learners.
Storytelling and Origami: Play in Many Forms
Play takes many forms, and the Foundation Day celebrated this diversity beautifully. In one class, our long-time volunteers Nutan and Jyoti conducted a storytelling session for Senior KG students.
For the children, it was an hour of imagination and wonder, but for us, it was also a reminder of how stories spark creativity, build language, and nurture empathy. Jyoti, who has been a steadfast volunteer with us for years, exemplifies what it means to be a play champion, someone who understands that play is serious, transformative work.
In another classroom, Ranjana and her daughter Sailee, both regular volunteers at our Foundation Days, conducted an engaging origami session with Class 4 students.
Beyond the joy of folding paper into animals and shapes, origami helps children develop patience, focus, and fine motor skills. Volunteers like Ranjana and Sailee remind us how play is not bound by age, and how generations can come together to celebrate creativity.
Interactive Spaces of Reflection
The celebration wasn’t limited to the classrooms. The hall was alive with interactive activities designed to make volunteers reflect on the skills that play builds. A specially created Play Bingo wall encouraged participants to spot and mark the different life skills they witnessed during the sessions. Another corner featured a hopscotch grid, inviting adults to travel back to their own childhood and rediscover the pure, unstructured joy of play.
We also had a wall where participants could share their favourite childhood memory or a game they loved most as children. Reading through these notes reminded everyone of a simple truth: play is universal, timeless, and essential. At our kiosk, we displayed the very games we use in our Life Skills Play Programme, allowing volunteers to explore how each game connects to specific skills children need to thrive.
Voices of Play
One of the highlights of the day was hearing from our volunteers themselves. Many spoke about how their understanding of play had shifted through their time with The Opentree Foundation. “I never saw play from this perspective,” shared one volunteer. “I always saw it as an afterthought. I didn’t know that play helps build these life skills and volunteering today with TOF allowed me to see that.”
These reflections capture exactly why TOF exists: to change the way the world sees play, from something ‘extra’ to something fundamental.
Our founder, Shweta Chari, summed it up perfectly: “We use play and play-based learning to transform classrooms into safe spaces for children to express themselves and be themselves, to build the teacher-student bond, to get children to be curious, to ask more questions, and to be uninhibited. Play transforms childhoods.”
We were honoured to have esteemed guests including Rizwana Shaikh, Principal of SS Sahney School, Khar, and Dr. Sanjay Chavan, Principal of Rajawadi School, among others. Their presence and encouragement highlight the importance of embedding play in education systems and policies.
But above all, this day belonged to our volunteers, our true play champions. From leading activities in classrooms to sharing their own stories of why they support play, their energy and commitment made this milestone celebration possible.
