Right To Play – Our 2024 Annual Report
Press Release
At all times, and especially in difficult times, our responsibility as adults is to protect children — protect them from harm, protect their rights, protect their childhoods. Now, more than ever, we must think not only of our own children, but of the millions of children around the world who need and deserve a safe space to play, the chance to go to school, support to cope with crisis, and the knowledge that someone believes in them.
Today, one in six children live in a conflict zone. 250 million children are out of school. And close to 70% of 10-year-olds are unable to understand a simple text. In many places, poverty, conflict, and climate change are widening the gaps in education, skills, and opportunity
— at a time when there are more young people alive than at any other time in history. It’s in everyone’s best interest to close the gap to ensure their success and greater safety, happiness, and prosperity for all.
Our efforts have real impact. In 2024, children’s early literacy scores more than doubled when we trained kindergarten teachers in Ghana in play-based learning. 90% of out-of-school children who joined our accelerated learning program in Pakistan were able to stream back into the school system. 95% of children in Lebanon felt more able to cope with trauma and anxiety after play-based sessions with trained coaches. A young girl in Ethiopia told us she didn’t think that blind children could go to school until a Right To Play–trained coach changed her story.
Supporting children’s learning and well-being through play transforms their lives. And experts and governments are taking notice, as they face the urgent need to ensure youth have the academic and life skills they need to succeed in a complex world. In 2024, the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange issued a Declaration for Action that named play-based learning as a driver of educational outcomes thanks in part to our advocacy. We successfully lobbied the United Nations to declare a new International Day of Play, to be celebrated annually on June 11. And renewed support from Norway through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation will ensure that more children in the Middle East and Africa can learn and develop through play.
As we celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2025, we are reconnecting with former program participants who are now nurses, teachers, and civil society leaders. They speak powerfully about how they’re paying forward the support they received to today’s youth. That’s what your investment in Right To Play does — it helps this generation thrive so that they can transform the lives of the next generation. That’s the power and impact of development work, and of your support.
We hope you will be inspired by what you read in this report and feel, as we do, ever more committed to protecting, educating, and empowering children to rise above adversity through the power of play. We are proud and grateful to have you by our side, and we thank you for your generous commitment.
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