Play. It seems obvious, but for children growing up in a children's home it isn't always. At The Ark, play is more than a way to pass the time — it is an essential part of what the children need.

First of all, play is simply relaxation. After school, after homework, after the tasks of the day. The space to just be, without having to do anything. That matters for every child, but especially for children who have been through a great deal.

Beyond that, children learn through play how to get along with one another. They practise together, negotiate, win and lose. Social skills you can't get from a book. Anyone who spends time at The Ark sees children who play together with ease — football, volleyball, or simply two or three of them in a corner. No fuss, no barrier. Just together.

And then there is something less visible, but perhaps the most important of all: play helps children to process. Trauma sometimes finds a way out through movement, through imagination, through doing something together. The safety of a game can open up space for what words cannot yet reach.

Something that has always stayed with me: a photo of children who had built a little car from a small solar panel and an electric motor. No shop, no budget — just ingenuity and joy.

Yet toys at The Ark are not a given. In Kenya it is common to donate in the form of food — oil, flour, rice, maize. Valuable and badly needed. But toys or play materials are less likely to come to mind. I spoke about this with someone connected to a school who regularly brings donations. She recognised it immediately — and said she would start mentioning it at her school from now on. A small conversation with a concrete outcome.

That is why, whenever I am in Kenya, I make a point of buying new play materials locally: skipping ropes, hula hoops, volleyballs, badminton rackets. And a chess set — because Tom loves chess, and he is not the only one.

Small things. But for a child at play: everything.