Nonprofits Build Playgrounds in Poverty and Disaster Stricken Haiti

Like warfare, severe poverty doesn't jibe with safe places for children to play together in a public setting. Nonprofits from all over the world have concentrated efforts in Haiti to address the need for playgrounds.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January 2010 that killed and left homeless many thousands of people drew a great deal of international attention and aid in the wake of the disaster.

Prior to the earthquake, the Disasters Emergency Committee reports:

• More than 70 percent of Haitians were living on less than $2 a day.
• 86 percent of national capital Port au Prince residents lived in slum conditions.
• 80 percent of education in Haiti was offered in often sub-par private schools because the higher- quality state system provided an inadequate number of schools.
• Half of Port-au-Prince residents didn't have access to latrines and one-third had access to tap water.

One example is Kids Around the World, a religiously themed group that since 1994 has built nearly 150 playgrounds in 27 countries, including nine either completed or in the works in Haiti.

The organization's website says it provides "safe play equipment for children ... in situations where it was difficult to just be a 'kid.' So often children find themselves as victims of situations out of their control, they become victims of economic stress, victims of political injustice, victims of natural disasters and worst of all, victims of war. It was for these children that Kids Around the World began."

Numerous other playground equipment and financial donation drives have taken place toward creating Haitian playgrounds. Some donor organizations include:

• Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos International
• International Childhood Enrichment Program
• Tilt-A-World
• The Miriam Foundation

Special Needs Playgrounds Gaining Ground

As playgrounds grow and evolve with increasing attention paid to safety and equipment durability, it's important to note that kids with physical limitations need adequate places to play just as much, if not more, than kids without disabilities. Children who must contend with limited mobility and dexterity need much more carefully designed equipment and facilities. In recent years, awareness of making parts of everyday life more "handicapped accessible" is now commonplace in many areas of everyday life. And in the wake of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, through which Congress made accessible public facilities the law of the land, focus on accessible playgrounds has naturally followed suit. Creating recreational facilities accessible to all, however still remains an uphill battle in many instances. Parents of children with disabilities often have to go out of their way to make local accessible playgrounds a reality. The St. Tammany Kids Konnection Boundless Pl

Playground Crime Common, Mostly Untracked

It's amazingly unfortunate how far some people will go to do damage to a playground. Police blotters in communities all over the world, affluent and underprivileged alike, tell the tale. Countless horror stories fill the record with news blurbs that frame playgrounds as crime scenes, such as this Aug. 2 report by WOKV television in Jacksonville, Fla. in which a 20-year-old man was found with a "life-threatening" gunshot wound and "the playground was closed off with crime scene tape as investigators searched for clues." In line with the absence of solid, enforceable playground design and equipment standards, crime statistics on schoolyards and public recreation facilities simply aren't kept by any level of government. So the research is scattered and purely anecdotal, except for a recent "experimental" attempt by the U.K. The children's British Crime Survey published in June recorded more than 2 million incidents of theft and violence agai

Thinking "Green"

Environmentally friendly playgrounds are becoming increasingly popular and prominent. As the "green" label has become a standard line in marketing throughout all kinds of business sectors, the same is evident among playground equipment manufacturers. A few examples of more sustainable playground elements include recycled tires in safety surfacing, recycled plastic benches and playground equipment recycling programs. Another common practice in recent years has been replacing asphalt surfaces with grass and natural surroundings. "There are plenty of new opportunities to transform decaying asphalt playgrounds or vacant lots into natural play areas," Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” wrote in a 2007 New York Times opinion article. "Researchers at the University of Illinois, exploring people’s relationship to nature, have discovered that green outdoor spaces relieve the symptoms of attention defic

Wyatt Underwood on "The Safe Child Campaign"

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