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The Value of Play
Spielwarenmesse eG and Indo-German Chamber of Commerce, the organizers of Kids
India, initiated a charity campaign called “Value of Play” at
Kids India 2013.
The Value of Play campaign
got off to a successful start at
Kids India. The initiative aims
to arouse more awareness of
the value of play in India. The
Value of Play Committee commenced work at its constituent session and appealed to the
professional audience during a
panel discussion at Kids India.
The committee of experts from
industry, science and social
services has set itself the goal
of fully exploiting the development potential of children by
organizing projects to promote
play. The campaign started
with a donation of toys by the
Kids India exhibitors, which lit
up the eyes of the children of
the non-government organization Magic Bus. The Value of
Play Committee is planning
more projects as the next step.
The Internet site www.valueofplay.in provides an overview of
the committee and the projects
and development of the charity
campaign.
India has a large number of underprivileged children whose
families cannot afford to buy
them toys. The toy manufacturers through their donation of toys were able to make
many such children, belong-
ing to the organization Magic Bus, happier by fulfilling
their wish of playing with toys.
The Magic Bus team, which includes 10,000 mentors, opens
up many prospects for the life
of many children and adolescents. Exhibitors at Kids India such as Brainstorm Limited (UK), Intrea Piko, s.r.o.
(CZ), Jasco Handicrafts (IN),
KDI Industries Sdn Bhd (MY),
Marvin’s Magic Ltd. (UK),
Panland GmbH (DE), Peacock
Toys (IN), Revell GmbH (DE),
TREFL SA (PL) and Zephyr (IN) donated products for
promoting the development
of these children. Katharina
Janotta, Director Project Management at Spielwarenmesse
eG, handed over the donations
to the children present.
The members of the Value
of Play Committee together
with other discussion participants expressed their views
publicly at a panel discussion
on “How toys and play effect the development of children”. “Play prepares children
for adult life in an optimum
way. Difficult facts can also be
explained better if toys are used
as teaching materials. Moreover, children establish lasting friendships during play,”
says the award winning actress
Tisca Chopra, well known for
her role as the mother of a dyslexic child in the movie “Taare
Zameen Par”, who took part in the
discussion.
The panel members were:
Tisca Chopra, actress
Mike
Fulkerson,
Senior
Director Marketing, Mattel, Inc.
Ruchir Panwar, RSP Design
Consultants India Pvt. Ltd.
Shradha Mehra, child specialist Dr. Rajani Konantambigi, Associate Professor,
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Sanjay Singh, founder of the
Chhuppi Todo Campaign
Havovi Wadia, Magic Bus
Chaired by: Vivek Jhangiani,
President, The All India Toy
Manufacturers’
Association
(TAITMA)
The fair organizers, Spie