Not Just Playing Around

For many Ethiopian parents, toys are frivolous extras, unnecessary burdens on a modest budget. But, at the Merom Absorption Center, fun and games are encouraged.

Sizes, shapes, weights, textures, sounds, reactions and interactions. These are just some of the wonders of the universe that children learn to grasp through playing with toys. Entering most Israeli homes with small children, one will find an array of colorful plastic, wooden and cloth toys stored neatly or strewn, but always within reach. A typical Israeli parent will ask questions, offer encouragement and actively observe the child’s progress. In traditional Ethiopian homes, however, parent-child relationships are much more distant, the parent holding a primarily authoritarian role.

Integration into a Western society means a change in the disciplinarian parental role to that of one which actively engages a child in play. The achievements of children who are stimulated in a home environment are promptly manifest in nursery school, kindergarten and primary school.

To assist the Ethiopian families with this passage, the Toy Program was born. Each Ethiopian family leaving the Absorption Center for permanent housing receives a box of toys - at least one or two for each child, with a ball thrown in for good measure. Babies receive mobiles or play centers, pre-schoolers receive blocks and shape games, older children receive domino, backgammon or scrabble. And each family receives the new wooden building block craze - Kapla.

Einat Malka, who coordinates the program at the Merom Absorption Center in Tsfat, explains, “We have three meetings with an educator before the family leaves. The first meeting is for the parents, in which we explain to them the importance of toys and being involved in their children’s play. They are interested, enthusiastic and even excited. The second meeting is with the children as well. The older children read the directions and the parents and children begin to play. In the third meeting, the families are encouraged to proceed independently with toys shown to them. You can’t not enjoy watching them loosen up and interact with laughter and warmth.

Sometimes a little frivolity can go a long way.