Thirty years ago, the importance of playful activities was on the physician Roberto Avritchir’s mind. This pediatric radiologist founded the Brinquedo Vivo Institute ten years ago. This non-profit Institute proposes to implement, by means of partnerships, interactive spaces for playful activities and expositions of handcrafted toys.

 

A fun and craftsmanship enthusiast, president Roberto became aware of the fact that he had a collection of toys and handcrafted pieces intimately connected with playfulness.

But even more than the pieces themselves, his attraction has always been the discovery of those craftsmen who confectioned these works, getting to know the life history of each of one of them.

 

From this quest sprung the desire to form a group of people with the same mindset who were willing to collaborate in a project aiming to rescue playfulness. With the aid of Mariena Flores, founder of the NGO Promote Sociocultural Activity, he wrote the document that would give rise to the Brinquedo Vivo Institute.

 

Along the way, the Institute has had partnerships with the São Paulo Sports Secretariat in projects attending different neighborhoods, such as the inauguration of playrooms and in the organization of Play Streets. Also, in partnership with SESC, Brinquedo Vivo is active at different events, such as expositions and play workshops for kids.

 

The project is active in socially vulnerable areas in the outskirts of the city of São Paulo, having already attended over 100,000 people from several communities.