BUILDING creative skills one plastic brick at a time – that’s the approach being taken by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children. The two organisations plan to distribute Lego toy building bricks to thousands of Myanmar children to help develop their creative abilities.

The toys were donated through a Partnership for Creative Play between UNICEF, the Danish Embassy in Bangkok and the Lego Charity, which the toy company of that name established 1932.

In a statement dated May 27, UNICEF said that play materials that stimulated creativity were essential for cognitive development as well as the development of children’s motor skills.

UNICEF is planning to distribute 1100 Lego play boxes to preschools and primary schools after training teachers how to use the colourful plastic bricks for creative play.

Nearly 12,000 children between the ages of three and five from 300 school-based Early Childhood Development centres and 24,000 children of Grade 1 from 800 schools from five cyclone-affected Child Friendly School Townships will receive the toys.

A total of 600 preschool teachers and 800 primary school teachers will receive the training.

Save the Children will distribute the bricks to more than 320 early childcare development centres in cyclone-affected areas in the Ayeyarwady delta, as well as selected areas in Myanmar benefiting nearly 18,000 children aged between three and five, and more than 1200 caregivers.