#33: Swati & Agyat – 25+ Years with Play for Peace: Insights and Stories About Changing Lives Through Play

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This interview took place October 2024 in Pune India. Swati & Agyat are still doing there amazing work with Play for Peace in counties all over the world. If you want to get a message to Swati & Agyat, please email: [email protected] 

PlayforPeace.org

"Play for Peace supports individuals and organizations who are passionate about children to transform conflict into meaningful and impactful learning experiences, fostering laughter, compassion, and lasting peace worldwide."

Additional Resources Mentioned in the Show

The Association for Experiential Education, Asia-Pacific Region

A Couple Activities Mentioned

Zip, Zap
Remember, Agyat talked about the concept of being 'OUT' – this is a good topic to talk about and see how people feel about being OUT. And, this game is not about being out, it's simply a change of responsibility if a mistake is made. And, 'making mistakes' is another good talking point. 

• Circle up your group. You (the facilitator) will start out standing in the middle of the circle so you can demonstrate the game.
• Explain to the group that the middle person will be pointing with both hands ‘clapped’ together and all fingers pointing forward so as not to look like they are pointing a gun at someone around the circle. The center person will yell “ZIP” when they point to a person.
• When pointed to, the person on the circle is to duck, while the students on either side of them immediately point over the ducking student at each other yelling “ZAP”. By ducking in time, and having an appropriate “ZAP” take place, everyone avoids changing positions.
• If the person pointed at by the center person gets zapped by not ducking quickly enough, they go to the center. If one of the two ZAP students gets ZAPped by not zapping back quickly enough, they go to the center of the circle. If everyone performs correctly, then middle person continues the round until they get catch someone not doing their required movement. 
• The middle person is supposed to keep the pace of this game fast to make it more fun for the participants.

Tips and Comments

• Be careful not to make the ZIPping and ZAPping  look like a gun or shooting activity.
• Be specific as to how students should point to avoid looking like they're holding a gun. [How about wiggly magic fingers?]
• Zipping or zapping from the top of your head [with wiggly fingers] is a fun way to ZIP and ZAP.

(This description is found in, Adventure Curriculum for Physical Education: High School, by Panicucci et al.)

Aga Zumba Zumba
Here's an action song Swati & Agyat like to put in their play sequence, found at the FUNdoing Blog – with Video.

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