CIELO is an international aid NGO active in assisting children from deprived backgrounds in Latin America . Games and leisure activities are central to its approach. Coming! Ready or not!

Activities run by the C.I.E.LO network include game festivals, promotion of traditional games and toys, grassroots toy librarians continuous training, mobile game trunks for isolated populations, playing activities for disabled children, books, expositions and films…

The setting up of a network of 25 community-based toy libraries in urban depressed sectors of Latin America, Africa and Middle-East benefits 40,000 children, teenagers and their families.

These toy libraries provide a place where children can meet each other and interact in community premises. Equipped with an average of 180 specially selected and classified games, the toy libraries help stimulate curiosity, creativity, imagination, interaction and family integration while reinforcing the children’s’ capabilities and knowledge.

They also encourage and strengthen positive values bringing together children and their parents in a more peaceful environment promoting values such as: respect, fellowship, honesty, communication and self-confidence. Each toy library is managed by a grassroots toy librarian (male or female) coming from the beneficiary district, duly trained by C.I.E.LO and remunerated.

In 2005, the C.I.E.LO network was selected by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC-United Nations) as one of the 50 most innovative social experiences among 1,600 initiatives from the entire region.

Contact: Patrick Bernard, director / cielo95@hotmail.com