KEEPSAKE - RSA

KEEPSAKE is a project I developed in response to the RSA brief titled ‘Dignity in Displacement’. As a creative individual, I realise the importance of creativity and imagination, so I took interest in exploring this area within children in displaced situations. As children are developing, learning and growing, creativity and play are important factors in their lives that can shape and define them as a person. Within refugee camps I found that children kept repeating the same message, they felt as though their ability to act as a child, play and live naturally was taken away and so I somehow wanted to tackle this issue. From this I developed KEEPSAKE, a toy exchange programme that lets children ages 5-10 from the UK build and design a flatpack toy for a child within a refugee camp. The process would then be repeated back to the UK and so forth. I was inspired by the penpal movement to create something where children could build friendships whilst still learning and encouraging play. I wanted to find a way to build back the trust of children within the refugee camps and provide them with something they can call their own. KEEPSAKE would run through a charity such as UNICEF and use their facilities and contacts to supply KEEPSAKE boxes across refugee camps in Europe. The toys would be packaged up in designed boxes which can also act as a part of the toy. Along with the toy would also be a written letter from the child for a personal touch which could later be translated by staff if necessary. The toys would be designed in the child’s own style to allow for unique personable gifts to be delivered in hopes of creating new friendships and encouraging creativity through children across Europe.