Creating joy for disadvantaged children.

Think about your typical day. You wake up and go to school. At recess, you play on a playground. During your classes, you might draw colorful maps or paint pictures. When you get home, you have toys to play with and parks where you can run and have fun.

Now can you imagine your life without toys? No candy bars, no ice cream, no markers or paint. You might not even have enough to eat. Not a single swing to swing on, and certainly not an entire playground! In that environment, it would be hard to feel inspired to draw. Even if you did feel like creating a work of art, you wouldn't have crayons, construction paper, or scissors.

It's hard to picture such a difficult life, but that's what it is like every day for millions of children in the world's refugee camps. Refugees are people looking for safety, or refuge, from war or crimes. They are often cramped together in close quarters, sometimes even living in tents!

Several artists, architects, and designers have now gathered together to try and change such bleak living conditions for refugee children. Playground and Toys is the name of this innovative project by Art for the World. Their traveling exhibition showcases the toys and playgrounds built to delight and inspire disadvantage youth around the world. The most important goal of the playthings is to make children feel better about themselves by playing and participating with each other. The toys are brightly colored and creative, big and small. A young sports fan might like the huge soccer ball, or the small wooden racetrack with metal cars. Or maybe you'd like to try the trampoline that plays music, or the brig playground.

The best and most original toys were chosen by panels of both adults and children to be sent to faraway countries and constructed in refugee camps. So far, playgrounds have been constructed in Greece, Armenia, India. Another toy, a large, fluttering area of hanging ribbons for hiding and dancing in, has been constructed at a primary school

at a primary school in London

Now, try and imagine again. Imagine that you are a child in a refugee camp. You might have been born there. Maybe you have never even seen the kinds of toys most children take for granted! Then, one day, a group of people arrives and begins building. You're not sure what they're making, exactly, but it's colorful, and big! When they are finished, there stands a playground--somewhere to run, laugh, and yell. A place to climb, swing, slide, and jump. Can you imagine how much joy you would feel? Just think--artists create this joy.

For more information visit Art for the World's website at www.art-for-the-world.com.