Wycliffe’s Got the “Play Flu”
Wycliffe’s Got the “Play Flu”
Hope, excitement and passion - these are three words that summarised the chat with Wycliffe. As a social entrepreneur focused on the educational sector, Wycliffe is using the power of play, creativity and improvisation to shape the educational landscape in Kenya and beyond.
It was really exciting to hear Wycliffe share inspiring stories on how he's using play to break old moulds and create new ones in his community, among school children especially in STEM subjects. For example, he uses music to teach students about the periodic table - something students struggle to memorize. With music, the students no longer struggled with memorisation but just sang the periodic table song.
Wycliffe doesn't stop there! He's constantly telling every educator and student who cares to listen that FAILURE IS A FRIEND, and not an enemy like we all perceive it to be. He tells young learners that failure should be seen as learning opportunities and stepping stones to the world of discovery. And he's always reminding educators that without failure, these learners can't grow!
Wycliffe recounted the very rejuvenating experience of being part of the facilitators of the recently concluded
PLAYTELLIGENCE playshops. He shared how exciting it was to plan and co-host a playshop alongside Cristina Gioveni from Argentina & Mamiko Miyamoto from Japan. As they met (virtually) several times before the event to plan their session, Wycliffe saw how different and yet similar human beings are, despite where we're geographically situated, our cultural differences, our skin colours or ages. The workshop on playing with mistakes made him realize just how mistakes are being frowned on all over the world.
As a proud alum of the GPB Ambassadors Program, Wycliffe is unstoppable and committed to the mission of making play mainstream, especially in education. Wycliffe dreams to someday have webcams installed in 20 schools across Kenya. Why, you ask? To connect these students to a world of play and a global community of playmates. It's his desire that these students someday be a part of the magic that happens at GPB Playshops.
Chatting with Wycliffe for almost an hour left us feeling so excited. Wycliffe has caught the “Play Flu”, and it doesn't look like it's leaving him anytime soon. While Wycliffe is resounding the message of play in Kenya, others are doing so in Australia, USA, Japan, and everywhere else we have Ambassadors. Little by little, we'll have a world where play is not just for children, but is a serious conversation for people of all ages and races. Till then, we'll keep cheering Wycliffe on!
