Students make sustainable educational toys for Anganwadi children | Fusion - WeRIndia

Educational toys improve cognitive abilities in children. However, not all children cannot afford them. Especially, children from poor families cannot buy these toys.

In this context, a fashion design college in Kerala wants to provide some educational toys to these children. It asked its students to design educational toys using reusable and upcycled material. After that, it wants to give these toys to Anganwadi children.

V Jana Rethika is a fashion design student at St Teresa’s College, Kochi. As part of their educational project, she and her classmates designed educational toys as per the instructions of their college. These toys were made out of eco-friendly, sustainable and upcycled material like discard clothes, building materials etc.

The college works with the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) to train Anganwadi teachers and conduct awareness programs for them. The college also decided to hand over the best designed educational toy to children.

Many toys available in the market are made of plastic. Hence, they are not good for children. That’s why the college assigned the task of making educational toys out of sustainable and alternative materials.

The fashion design students were asked to design toys from reusable and sustainable material as part of their educational project. At that time, they were told that the toys should be safe for children in all aspects. They were also told that the best-designed toy would be given to Anganwadi children.

So, all of them tried their level best and all of the toys turned good. So, the authorities decided to hand over all the toys to children.

The project was initiated last September. Students were divided into four groups to pitch their ideas. They worked on the project with the guidance of their teachers.

While Rethika made a twister and number train using a plywood board, discarded from construction at home, her friend Arpana made a denim puzzle and tangram book.

As per their decision, the college handed over the toys to ICDS authorities to be given to Anganwadi children.

Image from Pxhere (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Reference: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/820953