Cookie preferences

HundrED uses cookies to enhance user experiences, to personalise content, and analyse our web traffic. By clicking "Accept all" you agree to the use of all cookies, including marketing cookies that may help us deliver personalised marketing content to users. By selecting "Accept necessary" only essential cookies, such as those needed for basic functionality and internal analytics, will be enabled.
For more details, please review our Cookie Policy.
Accept all
Accept necessary
search
clear

Learn To Play - Ithute Go Tshameka

Weaving mindful play into the fabric of African early learning

Botswana faces a crisis in early learning and wellbeing - only 15% of 2–5-year-olds access ECE, deepening inequality. Foundational gaps persist, especially for the poor. Learn To Play partners with government to train women to deliver play-based learning—boosting school readiness, resilience, and agency. Our two-generational model improves outcomes, creates jobs, and strengthens public systems.
HundrED 2022
play_arrow

Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2022

HundrED 2021

Wellbeing in Schools

Parental Engagement

Updated June 2025
Web presence

2017

Established

7

Countries
Community
Target group
We’re proving that play is not a luxury—it’s a right, and a powerful path to equity. We aim to transform early education into a joyful, play-based experience for every child on the African continent —led by communities and supported by systems. Our model shows how low-cost, locally-owned solutions can scale through partnerships and shift education toward wellbeing and equity.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

Botswana faces a crisis in early learning and wellbeing. Despite its upper-middle income status, it remains one of the most unequal countries globally, with 49% of children living in multidimensional poverty, and one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. Only 15% of children aged 2–5 access early childhood education, and one in three Grade 3 students cannot read a single word. These outcomes reflect chronic underinvestment in the early years, when brain development is most rapid and the foundations for learning, wellbeing, and agency are formed.

Learn To Play was born to bring play-based, community-led early learning to rural and marginalised communities—where children, caregivers and educators are too often overlooked. Grounded in African values and co-created with communities, we support them to run their own playgroups, train local educators, and embed social-emotional learning through play, mindfulness, movement and storytelling.

Since 2017, we've reached over 10,000 children and trained hundreds of local teachers across sub-saharan Africa. Our work is evidence-informed, mapped to UNICEF’s ECDI2030 and the LEGO Foundation’s Learning Through Play framework, and is already influencing policy and government systems.

Our innovation isn’t just about access. It’s about changing the narrative—proving that African-led, joyful, holistic learning can transform futures. It’s about giving children the tools to build resilience, confidence, and hope from the very start.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

Learn To Play is a community-powered model that transforms early childhood education through play. In practice, it looks like joyful, locally-run playgroups in rural villages, led by trained community teachers. These spaces are grounded in African values—welcoming, playful, and filled with songs, storytelling, nature-based learning and relationship-building. Communities and government play a central role in bringing this play to life co-funding and operating playgroups.

Caregivers join in too. Our Parent Playbox equips parents with simple, low-cost tools and activities to support learning and bonding at home. It bridges the gap between school and home, helping parents see themselves as their child’s first teacher.

To support emotional wellbeing, teachers deliver The Mindful Way— Africa's first mindfulness curriculum for the yearly years. We practice a daily 15-minute routine of mindfulness, movement, and social-emotional learning through play. It’s accessible, and has helped children show increased confidence, calmness, and empathy—even in refugee and marginalised settings.

We use a validated Play-Based Programme Assessment Tool to measure quality and impact—tracking changes in teacher-child interaction, emotional climate, and developmental skills. This gives us data to advocate for play in policy.

Together, these tools form a scalable ecosystem—low-cost, locally owned, and rooted in joy. It’s what early learning should feel like: safe, loving, and full of possibility.

How has it been spreading?

Learn To Play began in 2017 with three community playgroups. Today, we’re reaching over 10,000 children, training hundreds of educators, and supporting local ownership of early learning across Botswana and sub-saharan Africa.

Our community-led playgroups, in partnership with the Government of Botswana, now operate daily in 8 districts across the country, powered by trained Maatla Mamas "strong mothers", who deliver joyful, holistic learning rooted in local culture.

Our innovations are designed for scale. Through our Mindful Way curriculum and training, we’ve supported 150+ educators in other countries and integrated daily social-emotional learning into playgroups, homes, and preschools across different contexts, including refugee camps.

We’ve distributed over 270 Parent Playboxes, reaching 800+ children, equipping caregivers to be learning partners at home. Our training model has spread to other organisations too—we’ve delivered educator workshops and shared tools with partners across the continent.

We also developed a Play-Based Programme Assessment Tool to measure impact and quality, giving communities, NGOs and governments data to improve their programs.

Our growth is driven by local leadership, smart partnerships, and the belief that African-born solutions can transform early learning at scale. In 2026 and beyond, LTP will be working with the Botswana Government as a technical partner for increasing access to quality early childhood education across the country.

How have you modified or added to your innovation?

Our innovation has continually evolved in response to community feedback, context shifts, and impact data.

We began with village playgroups but quickly saw that children’s wellbeing and learning needed support beyond the playgroup. So we co-created the Parent Playbox—a home-based toolkit that empowers caregivers with simple, playful activities to nurture their children’s development. It’s now reaching over 800 families, including in refugee and remote settings.

To strengthen social-emotional skills and resilience, we added The Mindful Way—a 15-minute daily routine combining mindfulness, play, and movement. Initially developed for teachers in crisis-affected areas, it’s now part of all our playgroups and has been rolled out to over 120 educators across three countries. In 2024, we saw a 60% increase in SEL outcomes at playgroups thanks to the Mindful Way.

We also introduced a Play-Based Programme Assessment Tool, enabling communities and governments to track quality and impact using locally relevant indicators. It helps ensure our model remains responsive, joyful, and effective. In 2024, 77% of children were developmentally on track to meet their language and literacy goals.

Finally, we’re adapting our model for government integration. In Botswana, we’re supporting various districts to pilot universal access to ECE, using our innovations as a foundation. These modifications show how a community-rooted model can remain agile, scalable, and grounded in children’s real needs.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

We believe play is powerful—and we’d love for you to experience it too.

Whether you’re an educator, organisation, policymaker or caregiver, there are many ways to get started with Learn To Play. Our approach is designed to be accessible, adaptable, and joyful—no matter your context.

You can start by exploring our sample resources from The Mindful Way— simple, daily 15-minute practices of mindfulness, play and movement that supports children’s emotional wellbeing. We offer training and implementation support for educators and organisations, tailored to your setting.

If you're looking to support learning at home, we offer our Parent Playbox—a low-cost, hands-on kit full of play-based activities for caregivers to use with their children, even in low-resource environments.

We also partner with organisations and governments to help set up playgroups, train teachers, and embed our play-based model into existing systems. Our tools, including our Play-Based Programme Assessment Tool, are open for collaboration and learning.

Visit www.learntoplay.org or contact us directly—we’d be thrilled to explore how play can bring joy, healing, and connection to your community.

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Learn to Play is empowering communities by equipping mothers with the knowledge and skills to lead early childhood education lessons and help facilitate enriching play environments. This scalable model changes mindsets on education in lower income communities and empowers women in the community.

HundrED Academy/Advisory Board Reviews

This seems highly effective and easily scalable. Empowering mothers to become engaged in their children's education from the beginning is an important way to ensure they continue to feel invested in their educational outcomes, and it seems the mothers here receive a lot of support to do this.

Establishing this innovation in disadvantaged communities where poverty is high and most children don’t have any exposure to early childhood education, is a brilliant idea. This innovation has a high potential to scale as it creates opportunities for children to learn about themselves.

- Academy/Advisory Board member
Academy/Advisory review results
Impact
Scalability
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Read more about our selection process

Media

Exciting News from East Africa! We are excited to announce our partnership with Duara Education and Silverleaf Academy in East Africa! Through our Train-the-Trainer programme, these organisations are now licensed to implement the Parent Playbox and Mindful Way in their communities.
Partnered with Kids Collab to develop the Parent Playbox which enables caregivers to actively support their children's early years development and fosters positive parent-child relationships.
Breaking the Mould: Redefining Early Years Assessment with Play-Based Tools
A big highlight of 2022 was attending the HundrED summit in Helsinki, Finland. Priyanka presented a workshop on learning through play, with a special emphasis on our mindful play programme. We also got the chance to co-present with the wonderful people from BRAC Tanzania and Bangladesh, Susan Bipa and Mofakhkharul Islam. We are so grateful for this incredible experience!
We recently returned from an incredible week in Uganda with Children on the Edge Africa, where we trained 120 teachers on child protection, social & emotional development, mindful play, and creativity for young children. We're thrilled to be part of this incredible impact by partnering with Children On The Edge to nurture every child's wellbeing, giving them a happy and healthy start to life
D-Kar Training - In August 2022 we trained 7 teachers and 3 teacher's assistants in D'kar between Mosaico and the VDC school. In return, they impact over 120 children The Training covered the below modules: 1. Early Brain development through play 2. Motor skills 3. Let's play literacy 4. Let's play thinking skills 5. Mindful play 6. LEGO playbox
Mindful play - Developing our mindful play program for playgroups and educators has been a big highlight. The impact of mindfulness on children is powerful as it helps children calm their bodies and minds. This creates a positive and relaxed environment that can benefit behavior, communication, and emotional regulation.
Dukwi Refugee Camp - Launching and successfully operating a playgroup for refugees
Kavimba Centre 2022 also marked the launch of our early childhood education center in the Chobe Region.
The Parent Playbox 2022 marked the year we joined forces with the incredible team from Kids collab to create the powerful Parent Playbox. Each box is carefully curated with 24 activities to encourage positive parent and child relationships, improve parental engagement, stimulate healthy growth, and improve the quality of ECD at home. This means happier families and lifelong learning!
Dukwi Refugee Camp training
Yoga and mindfulness with mothers and children in an inner city park
Outdoor play with Mamas in Kavimba
Go Baby Go training and resources, contextualised and translated into Setswana for wider accessibility. 
Positive Parenting workshop in Kacgae, a San bushmen community in Botswana. 
COVID-19 Response: Home-Visits
COVID-19 Parenting Tips with University of Oxford and University of Cape Town
The Learn To Play team
Consortium of Pre-Primary Data and Measurement in Africa - Rwanda
Play-At-Home: COVID19 Response
Creating a play-based curriculum
Training over 80 early childhood teachers in rural Malawi
Mobile Mentoring: COVID19 Support to 200 families
Sustainable Play Kits as a COVID19 Response
Nature Play
Food security and sustainable entrepreneurship through organic vegetable farming
Ecostraws made by Mamapreneurs from the Chobe Floodplains
Clean water and hygiene interventions
Mamapreneurs getting certified in First Aid
Mamapreneurs in Six Bricks LEGO Training
Conservation & literacy through stories and hand-painted story-stones
Sustainable numeracy and cognitive development
Fine Motor Mats & Home-made Books
Sustainable Play in a San Bushmen Community
Learn To Play / Ithute Go Tshameka
Show more

Implementation steps

Support our work

Click here to donate now and be a part of our impactful work!

Partner with us

If you are interested in partnering with Learn To Play to implement our high-impact programmes in your context; receive our training; conduct research on early learning in impoverished communities; or provide employee provided childcare at your organisation, please get in touch with us at priyanka@learntoplay.org

Consult with us
We can add value to your early childhood programmes, provide parenting support and enhance your community work through our unique Learn to Play's Mindful Way training, Parent Playbox and Playgroups. Contact us on priyanka@learntoplay.org to find out how we can help you create a more playful, nurturing impact.

Spread of the innovation

loading map...