A touching news video went viral on June 11. It shows a young Palestinian woman playing songs on a guitar for a group of smiling children in the ruins of a building in Gaza. The children clap with joy and jump about in a brief moment of freedom from fear.
The woman, medical student Rahaf Nasser, told Reuters that – after losing her childhood toys in a war triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel – she wanted to prove that “our children love to live, love to be alive, to play with each other.” An estimated half of the people in Gaza are children.
June 11 also happened to be the first International Day of Play. The annual observance was designated in March by the United Nations General Assembly as a way to celebrate and promote a child’s natural instinct for play.
Ensuring that children have opportunities to play in conflict zones – which last year numbered 59 worldwide – has become a global campaign for UNICEF. In Ukraine and in seven countries hosting Ukrainian refugees, for example, the U.N. agency puts a priority on nonformal learning, such as creating places to play, for the youngest children.
“Play is how children learn to navigate the world,” the agency stated. “It helps them to build narratives, knowledge and social skills and contributes to their overall development.”
It also helps preserve their innocence as long as possible, especially in world trouble spots. And it helps restore people’s hope in innocence after a conflict. When parents see a child having fun, it gives them confidence that their child will recover.
UNICEF has become creative in how it promotes play in war zones and disaster areas. It has redesigned cardboard boxes for food aid to include removable inserts that can be repurposed as pop-out toys, such as animal blocks and two disks to make a rolling ball.
The declaration of an International Day of Play may seem odd to many. Yet in war, playtime for kids is often the first casualty. Despite the destruction and high death toll in Gaza, several groups are now offering playful activities, such as informal soccer matches. A performance troupe, Free Gaza Circus, is sending clowns into refugee areas to do acrobatics and make jokes.
A child’s joy during play may not end a war. But the expression of innocence can help defeat a war’s aftereffects.