Our MMH Fellow Eszter Harsanyi and her team from NestingPlay have started to engage onsite with our MMH communities in Western Kenya. They are experts when it comes to early childhood development.

They train pre-primary teachers on learning through play and on noticing if a child shows signs of atypical development. Their PlayBank stores 300+ sensory-based play activities which also develop key abilities. These activities are online and offline available for teachers.

“We have also implemented a parent center,“ explains Eszter. „Together with some local volunteers we have put together a weekly activity plan for 0-3 and 3-6 years old. The toddlers mothers will come every day in the morning for singing, story telling, some kind of excercise together with their kids. And we have established also a talking circle – so that there is an exchange and community building possible. Once a week Friday we have introduced also cooking lessons for a healthier cooking style.“

It is amazing how the co-creation on health, economic development, infrastructure and general educational topics makes a huge impact on our communities. Together with our local NGOs, our employees who train on basic business and health prevention, with company partners who also invest in infrastructure and hygiene and our social enterprises such as NestingPlay, and Social enterprises training on farming, hydroponic cultivation, water collection etc we are able to run many activities in parallel.

Meanwhile in the past many organizations could engage in one or two topics – simply because of “restrictions of financial means and of areas of engagement“ only this different approach of „co-creation beyond borders“ can make a huge difference.The daily challenges of the people in the communities are complex and often depend on each other. More health is not possible without economic development, better infrastructures and more knowledge. We believe that together we can make an ever bigger and more sustainable impact!