Children’s games help in their mental growth

Agreeing with the common English saying “work without play makes Jack a dull boy”, Dennis Muchangi, the Public Relations Manager of Kwishima Cyane Media, encourages parents to always involve their children in playing both indoor and outdoor games. The soft spoken but eloquent Dennis Muchangi is a Kenyan who has been working in Rwanda for the last six months. He has been involved in events management especially organising and staging children’s fun days with different companies and families. “We usually organise parties for children both at home or a selected area that the parents prefer. We have several games for children especially between two to fifteen years of age. The items include bouncing castles, trampolines, face painting, party games, clowns and puppet shows,” Muchangi explains. He further said that they children enjoy bouncing castles and trampolines the most. “For birthday parties, we involve the children in several games they can actually remember because birthdays are memorable events. That’s why we offer services like face painting depending on the age of the children at the party. Children deserve to celebrate their birthday parties in style,” Muchangi discloses. Nicole Schiegg , a White House blogger, recently wrote that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and several partners including UNICEF launched the ‘Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday’ event. The premise of this awareness-raising campaign is simple; every child should have a chance to reach five. Over 7 million children—most of them in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia—didn’t reach their 5th birthday last year. That number is equivalent to the entire population of New York City. Her article further states that the campaign isn’t the responsibility of just the United States. It is a shared value with countries and citizens around the world. Children of all age groups have a right to celebrate their birthdays. Besides birthday parties, Kwishima Cyane Media also organises children fun days for different companies. For example they staged events for different financial institutions like FINA, KCB, Ecobank and Western Union. He also said that they involve children in extra-curricular activities which some children don’t participate in while in school. He said, “we teach the children games and songs and things that they can perform. Children’s games help in their mental growth. The children benefit a lot because they easily open up through games. There are games that open the minds of children for example games that require a lot of thinking which they don’t come across in school. Games painting, brain teasers that are challenging to the children usually activate their hidden talents. We motivate them by carrying out competition and the winner is given a prize.” Like any business, Muchangi says that there are challenges they get in organising children’s fun days and birthdays. “This being a new idea in Rwanda; it’s not been explored so far. Often, getting people to understand and convince them on what you’re doing is somehow hard. For instance, some parents feel that face paint is corrosive for children. You have to really convince them that it’s safe for the children,” says Muchangi. He also said that at times they set up games that are relevant to a certain age group and later discover that some children don’t feel part of the event because the games available are outdated for them. “The above challenge is usually as a result of misinformation on the age group of the children that will attend the event. For example, we can organise bouncing castles for children between the ages of 6 and 9 but children of 12 years and above who attended the event out number the age group we had been told,” Muchangi explains.