ARDI Day Center

Project Details

November 15th - The playground is complete! Check out photos at https://www.facebook.com/letallkidsplay Oct 21- Hello all! So unfortunately, I have been unable to post because this ENTIRE time we have been fundraising. And boy, fundraising sure takes a long time. But now we have the money! We are having the equipment specially built and the equipment for the ARDI playground should be installed in three weeks. I have uploaded photos of the wall of the playground. We had a volunteer spray paint it! July 12th- We picked up the surveys. Now I'm waiting for a few volunteers to help me translate them and then we'll be on our way! Here is the link to the map I've made of the playground and what we hope it will look like in the future. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8h0VbvGd7lsbTc2bmFUZV9IZE0/edit?usp=sharing June 25th- The playground has fallen into disrepair over the past months. We met with several parents and day centre workers and we are sending out a survey to all the parents so they can fill out what they would like to see in their playground. Some idea include: 1. We have monkey bars with metal basket ball hoops attached that need to be modified and painted. We also would like to make a small dirt court underneath. We think playing with the balls would be great physical therapy for the kids. 2. Parallel bars for children with cerebral palsy. The goal would be to have different levels of bars so kids of all ages could use it. The ground underneath would also have to be dirt. 3. Another idea was a staircase with three steps going up, a small landing, and three steps going down. This would have to have bars though. 4. We would also like a tunnel of some sort. 5. A play house. We could order one, but it would be very expensive. We're currently looking for people able to help us build one. 6. Our slides are hard metal slides that are not disability friendly. We are actually thinking of removing our large slide as it has no sides to it and the children could easily fall off. 7. We need swings both large and small with back support and seat belts. I will look at the models this website offers but the larger ones will beed to be strong enough to hold older, heavier children. 8. We're thinking of making a fence out of tyres so the children cannot run towards the back into a small ravine. 9. We need shade to cover the sandbox and the swings. These are the two favourite aspects of the playground but without shade it is difficult for the young ones to play. 10. We are also going to paint a mural. We are thinking of involving local artists. http://www.graffiti.com.kg/index.php?act=cat&id=4 Finally, we need to have one day where we bring in volunteers and do a big weeding and cleaning soon just so the current playground can be more usable, at least until the renovations take place. Will upload pictures of the before and after. June 25th- Heading to the day centres to meet again with parents and get a more solid idea of what the parents would like. Will update asap. May 15th- The initial discussion with parents went well. Here are some things I noted. Picture #1. One problem I have noticed is that there is only one swing. I imagine a place where two children could swing. Furthermore, there is no back attached to this swing, which makes it difficult if not impossible for many children to use. Pictures #2 and #3. The parents and workers said how they would really like benches to sit on for themselves and also a more comfortable sitting place for the children. It is currently the only place the children have to sit and it sure doesn't look comfortable. Many of these children have severe physical disabilities that don't allow them to play unaided. This is something we definitely need to fix. Picture #4. This sandbox could use some new sand. Picture #5. Overall, the playground could use some weeding and general upkeep.