Supported by the Yidan Prize project funds
Education in emergencies
Equity, access, and diversity
Learning/teaching methods and environments
Social emotional learning
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BRAC Play Labs help children access quality early childhood education in Bangladesh, Uganda, and Tanzania. Each project is tailored to meet the most pressing local education and humanitarian challenges.
90% of the brain’s development happens before age 5, and skills built in those early days can last a lifetime. Research shows that learning through play makes a huge difference when it comes to children’s physical development as well as language, motor, cognitive and social emotional skills.
BRAC works with families marginalized from traditional education systems, through poverty or conflict. In emergency and crisis settings, play-based interventions can help a child heal and build resilience.
Local challenges are best met with local solutions. The BRAC team applies the Play Lab model differently according to the most pressing issues in the region.
For example, in Bangladesh mothers face a lack of affordable childcare, particularly outside city centers. For Uganda, the education system needs support to integrate hundreds of thousands of refugee children. And in Tanzania, three quarters of children aged 0–6 experience poverty, with less than half enrolled in pre-primary education.
BRAC runs 656 Play Lab centers in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda, engaging around 11,500 children aged 3–5 in play-based learning. The team trains play leaders—typically young local women—in play-based education, engages parents to help create toys from local materials and decorate learning spaces, and enlists experts to design context-specific curricula.
They’ve also brought together community leaders and BRAC University architects to design child-friendly spaces. Low windows make the outdoors easy for little ones to access. Community members help build outside play spaces using low-cost, often recycled materials. And innovative insulating and cooling systems keep children comfortable. BRAC shares the blueprint across communities with advice for adapting to fit different contexts.
In Bangladesh, the project helps local people—generally women—launch daycare businesses, training them in early childhood development and play-based learning. They’re building livelihoods and a sustainable income. For many young mothers employed in garment factories, reliable local daycare offers a lifeline while they work to support their families.
In Uganda, BRAC’s developed a specially designed Humanitarian Play Lab for children in emergency settings. They’re working with 25 government primary schools and 10 Play Labs in refugee settlements—providing practical support and sharing inclusive approaches to play-based learning.
In Tanzania, the team is working with the government to support efforts to offer quality early learning. Play Labs are set up in government schools, helping children aged 3–6 get ready for school. Based on principles of joyful exploration, children build up a foundational knowledge of math and literacy, as well as all-important social and emotional skills.
A full report will follow, but interim updates show that: