The Many Faces of GPB One Asia

August 10, 2023

This is a picture of some of the many faces of GPB ONE ASIA

The participants of GPB One Asia hail from diverse countries from the pacific, yet their shared understanding is founded on the principle of 'Yes, And', promoting an unconscious yet pervasive atmosphere of support and camaraderie among them.


The mission of the region is to: Use play across borders to build playful and thoughtful community and connection, understanding each culture and nationalities deeply and creating new possibilities for social change among Asia Pacific countries.


The official launch of the GPB One Asia community was by way of a festival called the Food Face Festival #FFF.  The idea of this festival was inspired by our brigadier and founder of House of Holy Humour, Barbara Ann Michaels.  After sharing her almost 300 HoliDaily creations with the GPB Play Book ensemble, Hikaru Lou, the Lead Coordinator of GPB One Asia and one of the Regional Leaders of GPB Japan, picked up on the brilliance of Barbara's creations and was immediately drawn to the idea of piloting one of the HoliDaily playful instructions for GPB One Asia. They were joined by Ishita Sanyal, leader of GPB India, who has long stressed the value of sharing foods as a way of sharing culture and crossing borders.


We are proud to share that GPB One Asia in collaboration with Jester of the Peace pulled off the Food Face Festival successfully.  From July 1 to July 15, 2023 people from all over the world played, shared, connected with food in many creative ways. 


Click this link to view the many creations during the festival and the facebook live sessions too. 

GPB One Asia has more things planned in the future and if you are intrigued by the prospects of this region, join Global Play Brigade One Asia Pacific Facebook Group!  Or feel free to reach out to Hikaru Lou Hie directly. The next Food Face Festival is scheduled to run in November.


Watch this space!

By Danielle Speciale June 9, 2026
Author: Sarah Filman, GPB Director of Programs
June 9, 2026
GPB and Linking Circles Academy Collaborate on Project TECI We love a good partnership. And we really love a partnership that puts play where it belongs, in a classroom. So when Linking Circles Academy came with a vision to transform how teachers in Nigeria show up for their diverse learners, we opened the door. Fewer than half of teachers in Nigeria do not receive any training on inclusive education, and there are a lot of learners with diverse learning needs and abilities. Founded by Elizabeth Adams, a brigadier, Linking Circles is an education-focused organization on a mission to improve learning outcomes in African schools through teacher development. They've already trained over 50 teachers through virtual and in-person workshops. Project TECI (The Equitable Classroom Initiative) is their boldest move yet, aimed at training and mentoring at least 1,000 primary and secondary school teachers to design and sustain inclusive, equitable, student-centred classrooms. It's ambitious. It's necessary. And it has GPB's name all over it. Inclusive classrooms need teachers who know how to meet a room full of different minds, different stories, and make every single one of them feel like they belong. And play is one of the most powerful tools for developing exactly that. That's why GPB is stepping in as a curriculum partner for Project TECI. Through our Educators Ensemble, we're bringing our play-based and experiential learning methodologies directly into the teacher training design. GPB will be providing play-based learning resources and frameworks to shape the TECI curriculum, offering advisory and technical input, and delivering a virtual training session for TECI facilitators on how to integrate play and performance-based approaches into their work. We'll also introduce GPB's work to the educators coming through the TECI programme — because once a teacher catches the play bug, there's no telling where it spreads. We're happy to be walking this road with Linking Circles Academy. We're bringing play into spaces where it has been absent for too long. And we can't wait to see the classrooms and the children that TECI helps transform. Let's play it forward!