A community project in Tajikistan invites peers, children who do not have disabilities, to regularly attend rehabilitation activities six months before school starts.
On one such day a teacher was observing the children at play. They were initially each doing their own thing. One was playing with a ball, while another was fishing with a magnet. There was a child playing with dolls, another one with cars, and a boy from the peer group was building with blocks. He built a house and a parking lot for cars.
The other children started to notice his building project and one by one they started to come nearer and brought their contributions. One brought a car, one helped to add another story to the house, and another brought a flag to fly from the top of the house. After a while there was a big building project with many buildings. A single-house project had become a modern suburb.
The children had always been given time for free play, but the teachers had never seen an attempt at building such a project together before. The children worked side by side towards accomplishing a common goal and the result was beyond everyone’s expectations. The teachers saw the importance of involving peers and having the children learn to work together before schools starts.
