our history
Lively Minds was founded by Alison Naftalin, a British Government Lawyer, in 2008. Within one year and for just £3,000, Lively Minds had set up 10 play centres reaching over 1,200 children and training over 250 volunteers. Perfectly demonstrating how one lively mind can make a difference through passion and creativity.
2007
Alison spent 2 months volunteering in Ghana. She observed the complex challenges preventing children gaining access to quality education. She saw children weren’t given the opportunity to question or reason and as a result were lacking creative-thinking skills. She wanted to find a way to give
children in rural Ghana opportunities to learn through play (as we do in the UK)
and are crucial for a child’s development.
2008 – January
After researching the importance of learning through play in early childhood development, and calling on the expertise of trustees Dr Susanna Payne and Dr Amanda Sinai, Alison gave up her job and returned to Ghana to try and achieve her vision with just £1,000! . She spent time consulting with other development organisations, specialists, and community members before developing the projects.
“I wanted to give children an opportunity to play and learn with interactive and stimulating games. I believed strongly that giving children the opportunity to develop creative-thinking skills from a young age would give them a better start in life. So I hit on the idea of setting up Play Centres, full of educational toys, where they could learn and develop crucial skills through play.
I knew that access to the games would have to be free of charge so that all children would have the opportunity to participate no matter what their financial status. I also wanted the Play Centres to be run by the communities themselves. Rather than make the communities dependent on external assistance, I wanted to use local resources and to build up local skills. This meant that I would have to train volunteers from villages to run the Play Centres. The volunteers had no previous experience of educational games and so it was important to give them plenty of time to master these games and the participatory teaching methods. I commissioned local carpenters to make wooden games. I also got everyone I knew in Ghana to start collecting cardboard boxes, bottletops and buttons, that I used to make the games.”
She partnered with local organisations, CALID and CID Ghana, to pilot 3 Play Centres in Kotingley, Vittin and Wayamba villages. Once the Play Centres were up and running these NGOs took on responsibility for monitoring and supporting the projects.
2008 – July
Alison travelled to Uganda to pilot Play Centres in rural communities there partnering with 2 community groups (Samika and HOGU) and Child Fund International. Within 4 months she had successfully set up 7 Play Centres and realised the huge positive impact the Play Centres were having on the volunteers.
“The people most willing to volunteer their time were the people with the least amount of education and the least amount of confidence in their own abilities. It quickly became apparent that attending the training course had a huge impact on the volunteers themselves. They gained enormous amounts of confidence, self-esteem and learned to work together as a team.”
Sarah Kanyonga (Samika founder), was so impressed with project she asked whether she could continue setting up Play Centres in other villages – Lively Minds Uganda was born! Sarah was employed to continue the work with Joshua Buluke (HOGU Director) employed as programmes manager.
2008 – November
Alison returned to Ghana to check progress – All 3 Play Centres were still working well. David Abukari, her partner at CALID expressed his interest in getting involved too – He was employed as Country Manager with local teacher Augustus Ninfaa as Assistant Country Manager.
Lively Minds – Ghana was born!
- 2008 Play Centre TOTAL = 4 Ghana & 7 Uganda
2009
Alison returned to the UK and directed Lively Minds on a voluntary basis – the day-to-day running being carried out by in-country staff.
Lively Minds continued to grow in both countries. A new base was opened in the Upper East area of Ghana.
Lively Minds was shortlisted in the Best New Charity category for the Charity Times Award.
- 2009 Play Centre TOTAL = 8 Ghana & 12 Uganda
Read our Annual Report for 2009
2010
Lively Minds was selected by the Foundation for Social Improvement to be one of their affiliate charities.
Alison was selected out of 2,000 people to be a finalist in the Vodafone World of Difference Award
- 2010 Play Centre TOTAL = 12 Ghana & 15 Uganda
Read our Annual Report for 2010
2011
Alison continues to work as a lawyer 4 days per week volunteering for Lively Minds one-day per week to continue with the running of the charity.
Lively Minds partners with UNICEF to role out our Child Sacrifice Prevention programme in Uganda.
Alison wins prestigious Civil Service award for volunteering.
- 2011 Play Centre TOTAL = 18 Ghana & 18 Uganda
2012 and Beyond
This year we want to scale up our operations so that we can change more lives. We are planning on opening 15 more Play Centres in Ghana and 10 in Uganda. We want to open a new hub in northern Ghana so that we can reach even more remote communities and make a difference where it’s needed most.
We can only achieve this with your support.