The Power to Play: from Trash to Treasure

Creativity and passion

ChildFund International has long recognized that play is essential to the healthy development of children. Play helps them discover and explore, solve problems and test new ideas. Through play, children experience friendship, cooperation and teamwork.

The self-confidence and enthusiasm built through the power of play will transition with children into their adulthood, helping them become leaders of enduring change.

In celebration of our 70-year history of helping children, we communicate their strength, fervor and imagination with 350 hand-crafted toys in an exhibition entitled,

The Power to Play:
from Trash to Treasure

Children from around the world have contributed to this collection. Some toys are unique to their place of origin. Others tell the story of social, economic or political conditions in which these children often find themselves in the middle.

And some are as universal as a soccer ball or kite, connecting children across all three regions via similarities in their type of play and crafting techniques.

Whether it’s a toy boat from an old flip flop or a truck from an empty spray can, children have a remarkable power to create and play.

A showcase of the collection will be traveling to major museums and other locations across the United States. To ensure the toys arrive safely at each of their destinations, ChildFund is partnering with UPS for shipping.

Our traveling exhibition will enable thousands of people to appreciate the resourcefulness of the children who created each toy and to understand how important for a child’s development is “The Power to Play.”

Click on the links below to read children's stories about their toys and how they are made and click on the videos to learn more about the exhibition and the making of the toys.