LEGO Foundation Pledges $97-M to Bring Play-Based Learning to Conflict Zones

One humanitarian partnership aims to ensure conflict-stricken children receive support for an often-overlooked need: education.

The LEGO Foundation has a long-standing history of funding play-based learning initiatives globally. 

Under an agreement announced Wednesday, the LEGO Foundation committed $97 million to expand International Rescue Committee (IRC) programs that use play to help children learn and recover, James Pollard reported for The Associated Press (AP).

“Children who are born in conflict have their childhood stolen from them,” IRC President David Miliband told AP.

“But what’s remarkable about children is that if you give them a bit of their childhood back, they make the most of it.”

The five-year partnership aims to reach 5 million children across East Africa and the Middle East. The exact locations may shift as conflicts evolve.

LEGO Foundation CEO Sidsel Marie Kristensen said the initiative will focus on children in the “most dire contexts.” Countries under consideration include Ethiopia, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Uganda.

Kristensen said the “truly agile” framework is designed to deliver play-based learning where it is most needed, rather than relying on fixed, location-based grants that may become outdated as crises evolve.