Our Story

We Play supports local play initiatives worldwide that aim to develop safe, accessible, eco-friendly and sustainable play areas based on the needs of children and involvement of the communities they live in. We Play actively monitors and evaluates the projects it supports. Our role is to help raise funds, generate publicity and awareness and share ideas and advice about the use of public spaces, local materials and creative designs. We Play’s cooperation partners include playground experts, local communities, grassroots organizations and diaspora groups.

We Play believes that every child deserves and needs a safe place to play and enjoy its childhood years. We wish to contribute to the health and well-being of children and to liveable and prosperous communities.

We Play has supported a playground project in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in the past few years and is currently engaged in the development of new play space initiatives in Ghana and Kenya. We Play is also looking for partners to develop safe play areas in other parts of the world as well, such as Indonesia.

You can find our annual plan for 2020 here, and our annual report from 2020 here:

The board of We Play consists of:

Ralph Welcker, co-founder and chairman, and Gerda Dommerholt, co-founder, executive secretary and treasurer.  They have worked for a long time in international development and in migration and share a strong commitment to the well-being of disadvantaged children in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world.

The board works on a voluntary basis and does not receive any remuneration. The foundation has no hired staff, only volunteers. Financial means for We Play’s projects are received through donations or subsidies.

Donations we receive are all used for our playground projects.

We Play is a Public Benefit Organization (ANBI) since 1 January 2020 and is registered in the Netherlands.