Image from Projeto BIRA

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve had a strong desire to travel all over Brazil, to get to know its diverse realities firsthand. When I’d travel with my parents, my eyes fixated on the landscape passing by, and I’d imagine myself visiting each little house on the side of the highway. I’d invent names and destinies for those kids with barefoot bodies whose eyes gazed into the wind, and for those old folks with crooked canes who spent hours on crooked benches in the shade of jacaranda trees . . . The childhoods and games in each place I passed were what always attracted me the most.”
- Renata Meirelles, How it all Began, Projeto BIRA (Brincadeiras Infantis da Região Amazônica or Children’s Games in the Amazon Region)

A few years ago - when I was getting started with BRINQ - I was thrilled to come across the work of Renata Meirelles and David Reeks, a Brazilian American couple that was working hard to document and share the toys and games of the Brazilian Amazon. Their stories of what they discovered and shared were truly inspirational and I had hoped to meet up with them on one of their trips back to the U.S. Unfortunately the timing didn’t work out and I have since moved on to other projects, leaving my task of building a global toy chest sadly neglected. However a recent discussion on the Omidyar Network about recycled crafts and toys sent me looking for David and Renata’s work once again and I was delighted to see what they’ve been doing in all this time.

BRINQ - A juggling workshop in Urucureá, Amazônia

Just how have they been keeping busy? Two short films, a number of film festival appearances and awards, dozens of presentations about Amazonian toys and play to school children in both the Brazil and the U.S., media coverage, a new website, return trips to the Amazon, and even a new documentary in the works.

Since I first discovered Projeto BIRA, I have been lucky to have made my own short trip to the Brazilian Amazon, where I was able to experience a few of the games and toys children play with in a few riverside communities, as well as sharing a few play activities of our own… some successfully, some not so successfully: FYI, embarrassment is when you can’t remember how a game of duck duck goose ends. However, Renata and David spent more than 8 months visiting 16 communities in the Amazon - playing the whole way - and the depth of their work is at a whole other level: truly inspirational.

• Visit the Projecto BIRA website at http://projetobira.com
• Watch a short video of Projeto BIRA’s work

Previous story (2005): A Playful Exchange - O Projeto BIRA

To the casual observer, it may seem like we haven’t doing much with toys lately here at BRINQ! However, though we HAVE been pretty busy, we’ve had our eyes at everywhere for new toys and innovations at all things play. Everywhere being Brazil, Kenya, the U.S., and of course the Internet.

Here are a few of the toys we’ve come across in the Base of the Pyramid.

	Toys Cars Kids love cars, and they love to play with model cars the world over. Most of the cars we saw were made with scavenged metal wire for the frame, rubber bands for the joints, and cut up sandals for the wheels. A long metal rod with a steering wheel on the end (attached to an axel on the front wheels) allows kids to race their cars around the streets, including lots of popular makes and models: Corvettes, Land Rovers, Jeep, VW Bugs and more. See also the Gallery at Stome.net, Jungle Photos, StreetPlay.com for more.
	Animated wireframe figures We came across wireframe push toys on our first trip out to the Rift Valley in Kenya, then later encountered them throughout Kibera and the other slums of Nairobi. Similar to the wireframe care except with moving parts, rotating wheels on the bottom cause the figure on top to move, a bird to flap its wings, and man to ride its horse. Often the wire would be wrapped in bright thread to give the figure a costume. Check out a number of these toys at ToyResearch on Blogspot.
	BottleCap Toys We ecountered lots of bottlecaps during our time in Kenya, especially the days we spent sorting trash with the Kibera Youth Self Help Group. We also came across a few bottlecap toys, some fishing line or wire and you can make snakes, action figures, and more. Check out FolkArtPlus and WorldPlay.org for more examples.
	Soccer/Football Soccer is one of the most loved sports in the Base of the Pyramid. Every kid dreams of being the next Pele or David Beckham, drafted to play for their favorite English Premier League team like Manchester United or Arsenal. Soccer balls are expensive though, so most kids have come up with an ingenious solution using a commonly donated item… condoms! Wrap a blown up condom in a plastic bag and lots of string, and you’re on your way to the Premiere league! Check out the film “The Ball” at DayZero.co.za
	Anything with a wheel An old bicycle inner tube, a barrel wheel, or even a wheel off a car… if it’s round and rollable kids will play with it! Often we’d see kids in Kenya running behind a rolling tire, pushing it along with a tap of a stick while being chased by other kids. An easy to make toy and mobile too.

We love a good idea when we see it, especially when it’s just like one of our own! Check out World Play, a non-profit founded to share the diversity of toys and play among communities throughout the world. Sound familiar?

See more at www.WorldPlay.org

WorldPlay is a nonprofit corporation supported by a coalition of organizations whose main goal is to celebrate the creativity of children through the toys they invent. It is our aim to promote a better understanding among children of the diverse cultures throughout the world, using creativity and play. WorldPlay presents an outstanding collection of toys created and designed by children throughout the world. Through various media, a book, a video, a newsletter, traveling exhibits, and through this site, we wish to expose others to the creativity of children around the globe through their hand made toys. By spreading the knowledge of these various toys, our goal is to promote an understanding of different cultures from around the world through the toys that children make and play. No matter the economic status, education, or physical abilities, a child’s creativity is universal. We fervently hope that through play, children will gain respect for each other.

Don’t forget to check out World Play’s library of toy designs, complete with directions on how you can make them yourselves!

For those that have followed our work here at BRINQ, our efforts with the toy industry, and our focus on discovering "Innovation in Utility", the Boston Globe has an article which has gotten us really EXCITED!!! It even starts with an example from the toy industry!

Here’s a quick quote, you can find a link to the rest of the article below:

Ultimately, user-centered innovation may transform not only companies’ product development processes but also business models, turning them into the providers of innovation toolkits to users and the marketers of their innovations, [MIT’s] von Hippel suggests.

Innovation toolkits!! We definitely need to talk to this guy!

Links:

• Manufacturers learn from users’ creativity - the Boston Globe
• Democratizing Innovation Von Hippel’s new book, available online via a Creative Commons License
• Slashdot discussion - Slashdot.org - News for Nerds - Stuff that Matters
• Capturing the Unexpected Innovation - BRINQ - Innovation at Play

"Twenty-five years ago, I discovered that if children see a scientific principle incorporated into a toy, they understand it better." - Arvind Gupta

At BRINQ, we’ve long been fans of magic man and toy tinker Arvind Gupta and his Little Toys, so we think it’s high time we do our part in sharing his work with the world!

The range of his toys is unlimited. Like a magician, he puts his hand into his magical bag and pulls out all kinds of wonderful science-based toys. Mechano sets made out of cycle tubes, motor cars made from batteries and magnets, air pumps to blow balloons from empty film roll cans and cycle tubes, fun toys like a marble-swallowing rat made from newspaper, different games from matchsticks and boxes, and many many more. What gets the children totally hooked is the fact that all these marvellous little gizmos can be created by them too.

Keeping simplicity and affordability as his guiding principles, Gupta’s toys are made out of household waste. Discarded tetrapaks, cycle tubes, toothpaste tubes, paper, battery cells, refills, film rolls, cartons, bottles, straws… there’s nothing that doesn’t qualify as raw material in his laboratory. To make his toys, one doesn’t need to shop for expensive and new things; any used item can be recycled into a wonder toy of science. "After all, in a world so full of junk, there can be no dearth of material," he points out. "Half the fun is in collecting the material," he adds and children ought to be trained to look at waste as the birthplace of new creations. [Read more from "Toying with science"]

Gupta, the winner of India’s first National Award for Science Popularisation, has taught hands on science and toy-making workshops to thousands of children throughout India. His trash-to-treasure lessons have been written up in numerous books, freely available for download. "Little Toys" is one of his most well known books:

An attempt has been made in the book to show how some of this modern junk can be recycled into joyous toys. Film-roll cases can be transformed into a high-efficiency pump, Frooti tetrapacks into measuring cylinders or butterflies, packets of cigarette into merry-go-rounds. These new raw materials offer innumerable possibilities for use in low-cost science experiments and in making dynamic toys.

Try making some of his toys yourself, and enjoy these treasures from India’s Magic Man!

Additional Links and Resources:

• An interview with Arvind Gupta - by Multiworld.org
• Books from Arvind Gupta - more science and toy-making books for download
• Little Toys Excerpt - a color excerpt on the web of six toys from the book
• Gupta books for purchase - physical copies of three of Gupta’s books, including "Little Toys"

Past "Toys from the Brinq" articles:
The Power of Play — A Playful Exchange — Invention at Play — Finding Blue in a Sea of Gray — Brazilian Toys Libraries — Geppetto’s Dilemma — Playing on Empty

How do you help children cope when their whole world has been swept away? A number of tsunami relief organizations and corporations are showing that one answer is helping children do what they do best . . . play.

The Christian Children’s Fund reports on CCF’s role in the tsunami relief and helping children heal through play:

Amidst the death and destruction, CCF’s child centered spaces are providing an oasis of hope for children left homeless or orphaned by the tsunami. The child-friendly places provide organized activities to thousands of children living in camps who have lost their homes in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

Toni Radler, CCF’s Communications Director, visited the child-friendly places while assisting in the tsunami-affected areas. “They are making a huge difference for the children. Before these spaces were created, children were walking around listless or sleeping part of the day. Now they are playing games and singing, and even receiving informal education, such as math instruction. Several of our parent volunteers are actually kindergarten teachers,” she said.

The Baltimore Sun article "A Haven for child’s play" reports of one play center in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, set up by the American relief organization Save the Children:

Toddlers stacked building blocks into towers. Five- and 6-year-olds played board games, paged through storybooks and chased one another in circles. Teenage girls in headscarves and skirts sat cross-legged side by side, whispering in each other’s ears and giggling.

These might be scenes from children playing almost anywhere in the world. But here, where the violent shaking of the earth and a giant wave made it seem that the world was about to come to an end, the sights and sounds of children’s play and laughter this week were nothing short of remarkable, as refreshing and rare for residents as a cool breeze in this steamy city at the northern tip of Sumatra island.

Meanwhile, multi-national companies like Hasbro, the world’s #2 toy company and home to Mr. Potato Head, G.I. Joe and Monopoly, are donating to the relief:

Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS) announced today it is providing a $400,000 contribution to assist with the short and long-term needs of children affected by the tsunami disaster in southern Asia. Hasbro’s contribution includes financial gifts to World Vision and UNICEF to support various programs benefiting children and their families, as well as a large toy donation to children in some of the hardest hit regions.

Finally, U.S. Navy sailors quickly donated some of their most prized possessions to help children heal.

Sailors came from all over USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and lined up in the ship’s hangar bay in January to donate some of their most prized possessions - stufffed animals and toys - to victims of the tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia.

Additional Stories and Links:

Children of the Tsunami Play Again - by World Vision International
World Vision International Tsunami Response
100,000 play packs for children of tsunami-hit Indonesia - from Channel NewsAsia
“Rain Dance” by Patrick Donohue - a short story on the importance of joy and play

Projeto BIRA (Brincadeiras Infantis da Região Amazônica) is all about playful exchange, an effort to document and share the games and play cultures of Amazonian communities in the north of Brazil:

This project is totally focused on games that are carried out by children, in areas where spontaneity is the principal means of communication and where the forest and its embellishments are the source for materials and challenges that motivate a diverse range of actions. These actions are easily recognized by parents, grandparents, and ancestors who play along in some form, even if it’s only through a look that conveys the recognition: "Ahhh, I know how to play that." [StreetPlay.com]

Brazilian educator Renata Meirelles and American documentary film-maker David Reeks started the project in 2001 with an eight month tour of sixteen marginal communities in the states of Pará, Amapá, Amazonas, Roraima, and Acre, where they lived and played with children of the communities while sharing the toys and games of the other regions in Brazil.

"We recall a little top made from a tucumã seed, painstakingly cut and drilled by children of the Galibi (from Oiapoque) and the Wapichanas (from Roraima). Its spin generates a fascinating scream that can be heard from afar, and it is at least one example of how games open paths that don’t deplete the pleasure and beauty of one’s actions, while leaving conversation open with the cultural, historical and social dialects of each people’s tradition." [StreetPlay.com]

The Project is collecting material and stories to publish a book and a documentary film. In the meanwhile, you can visit the Projeto BIRA website (available in English e em português), which includes a diary of Renata and David’s travels, pictures of games and toys of Amazonia, and letters and drawings from children.

When we last heard from Renata and David in January, they were once again traveling throughout Brazil, no doubt playing all the way!

More images are also available from StreetPlay.com.

Here’s a wonderful website and organization that is right up our alley, Invention at Play of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, part of the Smithsonian museum.

"The Lemelson Center is dedicated to exploring invention in history and encouraging inventive creativity in young people."

Invention at Play is both a website and a travelling exhibit, currently on display in Omaha, Nebraska and Wilmington, NC. More about the exhibit:

Invention at Play is a highly interactive, engaging and surprising traveling exhibit that focuses on the similarities between the way children and adults play and the creative processes used by innovators in science and technology. It departs from traditional representations of inventors as extraordinary geniuses who are “not like us‚” to celebrate the creative skills and processes that are familiar and accessible to all people. Visitors of all ages will experience various playful habits of mind that underlie invention.

The website includes biographies of historical and modern inventors and organizations, an interactive online play space to spark creativity, and articles and videos on the importance of play.

Invention at Play does a great job of explaining the importance of play to creativity and innovation, both in your personal life AND in your working life. This same playful spirit is at the heart of what we do here at BRINQ, so we couldn’t agree more!

“We are all too much inclined to walk through life with our eyes shut. There are things all around us, and right at our very feet, that we have never seen; because we have never really looked.”
-Alexander Graham Bell

In English, to feel "blue" signifies being depressed or sad, but in Portuguese "azul" (blue) signifies the opposite emotions of well-being and happiness. At first glance then, a sea of gray-brown shanty houses and slums seems like the least appropriate place to be named with this color of hope, but the Monte Azul (“Blue Hill”) favela in São Paulo carries the name regardless, and since 1975 the Associacão Monte Azul has been proving that the name fits.

German Ute Craemer was living and teaching in São Paulo, Brazil in 1975 when a young girl from the Monte Azul favela knocked on her door begging for food. The teacher recognized the girl’s needs went beyond food though, so she built a work area in backyard to help meet the needs of those living in the Monte Azul favela. Her backyard workspace would later migrate to the favela and become the Associacão Monte Azul.

Today the Associacão improves the lives of thousands of favelados (favela dwellers) through a number of its services, including basic literacy education, kindergarten and preschool, outpatient clinics, carpentry and electrical workshops, bakeries and toy making facilities. Monte Azul’s toy dolls and wooden educational toys are sold both locally in Brazil and throughout the world, and its “bonecas” (dolls) are popular items in Fair Trade shops.

Several photos of Monte Azul toys are depicted below, with more available from Monte Azul’s product catalog.

Links and Resources:

Associacão Communitario Monte Azul - (Portuguese) (German) - home site in English, Portuguese, and German
The Whole Child Initiative - with a summary of the Monte Azul organization
Favela Children: A Brazilian Diary - Ute’s Craemer’s 1981 book on children’s life in the favela, translated into English and available for download
Ute Craemer - more about the founder

In his brilliant work, the Mystery of Capital, Hernando De Soto argues that the United States has forgotten its own history and methods behind its current success. So here at BRINQ, we try to learn as much as we can from the great innovators of history. Today we profile one of the greatest, A.C. Gilbert: medical doctor, Olympic gold medallist, magician, and inventor of the Erector Set, one of the most popular toys of all time.

Gilbert’s Erector Sets allowed children to build mini metropolises, bridges, Ferris weels, and even zeppelins in their living rooms. An estimated 30 million of these steel and wooden construction sets have sold over the years. Although Erector Sets have lost ground in recent years to more modern toys and video games, they are still a popular toy for purchase, especially for children with an imagination for building things up rather than tearing them down (a common theme in today’s video games). EBay alone clears hundreds of new and vintage Erector Sets each day, some bidding as high as $1000!

Inventor A.C. Gilbert was born in 1884 and as child had a love for all things magic. When he began medical school at Yale he started Mysto Manufacturing, a company which manufactured magic kits, to pay for his tuition. After a break from school and work in 1908 to win the gold medal for pole-vaulting at the 4th Olympic Games, Gilbert graduated with his MD and made the fateful decision to design toys rather than practice medicine. As the story goes, it was on train trip into New York City when Gilbert had the inspiration for Erector sets:

“Watching out the train window as some workmen positioned and riveted the steel beams of an electrical power-line tower, Gilbert decided to create a children’s construction kit: not just a toy, but an assemblage of metal beams with evenly spaced holes for bolts to pass through, screws, bolts, pulleys, gears and eventually even engines. A British toy company called Meccano Company was then selling a similar kit, but Gilbert’s Erector set was more realistic and had a number of technical advantages — most notably, steel beams that were not flat but bent lengthwise at a 90-degree angle, so that four of them nested side-to-side formed a very sturdy, square, hollow support beam.”

Lessons? Well, A.C. Gilbert’s story emphasizes the fact that innovation can come from many different places and can be inspired at any moment. Just keep looking at the world from different angles and who knows what treasure you’ll discover. It also probably wouldn’t hurt to live as eclectic and stimulating a life as A.C. Gilbert’s!

Resources and Links:
Girders and Gears - the Web’s #1 resource for metal toy construction systems
A.C. Gilber Heritage Society - honoring the memory and accomplishments of a very great man in American toy history
The Great Idea Finder - A.C. Gilbert - More facts and links about A.C. Gilbert

Discarded socks, aluminum cans, and corncobs may look like trash to some, but to nine-year-old Junior of Brazil, they are balls, cars, and dolls in the making. Junior makes toys when he visits the toy library set up by his Christian Children’s Fund project, Federacao Sao Goncalo Do Rio Preto. At the library, he can also play with commercially made toys that his family could not otherwise afford, and learn music, stories and games important to his community and culture. Junior’s participation in the library has helped him develop closer ties with friends and better relationships with his three siblings. According to Obedes Barbosa Soares, CCF Brazil’s program director, toys “play a meaningful role” in a child’s interaction with others. “They are essential for the human being’s emotional, intellectual and physical health,” he said. CCF Brazil began the toy library program in 1999, primarily in rural communities, where access to entertainment and toys is limited. Specially trained child educators run the libraries, which are set up wherever space can be found—rooms inside the project’s headquarters and even outdoor sheds. The libraries are guided by “the culture of the child,” said Soares. “It is the culture of activity, fantasy, discovery and imagination.” Storytellers, and folk song and dance groups regularly appear at the libraries. Luis, a father of three sponsored children, plays guitar for a group called “Folia de Reis” (“Revelry of Kings”) that practices once a week in the local toy library. The group teaches children songs and dances, and reconnects them with their roots. At Christmas time, “Folia de Reis” goes performing door-to-door, to raise money for the poor. CCF-Brazil operates 24 libraries and hopes to open another 25 in 2001. For a relatively small investment, project staff is able to create a space where, according to Soares, “children and adults can share joy, relive their traditions and build a better world.” Copyright 2004. Christian Children’s Fund. All Rights Reserved. – This story was submitted by the Christian Children’s Fund Links and Resources: (English /Inglês) CCF’s Toy Libraries - More about the Toy Libraries CCF Brazil - an overview of CCFs efforts in Brazil Donate a Toy Library - Help build a new toy library or donate to other CCF Projects in a loved ones name. (Portuguese /Português) CCF Brasil - O Fundo Cristão para Crianças e as Brinquedotecas dela. “Brinquedoteca” = “Toy Library”

A doll made of rolled-up white material has a special meaning in Belarus. Some 40 years ago, the country experienced an epidemic of scarlet fever. In one of the villages, almost all the children died. But there was one little girl whose grandmother had made an “Aleysa” doll for her and placed it on the child’s heart, saying it would save her life, and her life was spared. A similar “Alesya” doll, made by 12-year-old Elena of Belarus, appears in a special exhibit of toys created by CCF children around the world. The collection, currently in the lobby of CCF’s Richmond headquarters, features about 250 toys, each with its own story. Plans are underway to exhibit the toys in children’s museums around the U.S. Dr. John Schultz, CCF president, found the inspiration for the exhibit while visiting Kenya in May 2000 during the famine. After witnessing tremendous human suffering, he watched, amazed, as a group of children sailed hand-made toy boats on Lake Turkana. “I was expecting to see children and their families either begging, or sitting idly by the side of the road waiting for their fate,” he said. “But I was struck by the fact that they were having a childhood, in spite of the famine and emergency at hand.” He admired one boys’ boat, which was made of a rubber flip-flop, twigs and plastic bags. The child presented him with the boat, and CCF’s collection began. Like the flip-flop boat, most of the toys in the collection are made from discarded items, which were given new life in the hands of the children. A construction site provided the raw materials for a Zambian boy, who created a miniature 10-speed bike from tiny, elaborately twisted wires. An 11-year-old boy in Brazil turned two sardine cans into a car and a trailer. One child made an oil delivery truck out of discarded materials after admiring the real trucks that sometimes passed by his town. Nalubuga, age 11, lives with her family in a poorly constructed shack in Uganda. But she calls the dollhouse she made out of banana leaf fiber and cardboard her “dream house”. That special toy sums up the hope of all the children, indicating how the toy exhibit captures not only the children’s inventiveness–but also their dreams. Copyright 2004. Christian Children’s Fund. All Rights Reserved. – This story was submitted by the Christian Children’s Fund