We Ring the Bell
A worldwide initiative of the Liliane Fonds that runs in more than 20 countries to raise awareness for the right to education for children with disabilities. We Ring the Bell for Inclusive Play-Based Early Childhood Education (IPECE) for all children, including children with disabilities.
Play challenge 2024
To amplify our efforts, we’ve launched a challenge as part of the We Ring the Bell campaign for the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE), taking place from April 22nd to 26th, 2024. This challenge aims to spotlight the importance of IPECE and ignite creativity and inspiration in promoting play-based learning.
The challenge:
Invent/Create Your Own Games and Toys with Local Materials
> Read more about participation
Right to education for all children
Since 2015 – annually – thousands of children, teachers, and parents ‘ring the bell’: they make as much noise as possible to ensure that everybody knows that all children have the right to education, including children with disabilities. The message of our awareness campaign reaches a large number of local leaders and government officials every year.
Research has shown that Early Childhood Education is crucial to the development of children and benefits them and society for their whole lives. Especially for children with disabilities the benefits can be tremendous! We are campaigning for the acceleration of IPECE, highlighting the importance of making it inclusive from the get-go, because inclusion is not an add on, but a transformation from within!
IPECE in Zambia
Our partner organizations in Zambia organized a successful campaign for Inclusive Play-based Early Childhood Education in 2023 and managed to encourage many other organizations to become actively involved. They convinced local authorities of the importance of IPECE and, as a result, received unexpected financial support to implement IPECE.
Disability awareness India
Mary lives in India. She was born with cerebral palsy. At school, people did not acknowledge her, and teachers took no interest in her studies. The “We Ring The Bell” Campaign increased disability awareness among her teachers, Mary says. Now, she is treated equally by her teachers. They always help her and appreciate her for who she is.
Sign language training Togo
At high schools in Bè-Plage and Agbalépédogan in Togo, students with a hearing impairment often drop out because there are no teachers with specific skills to help them. After the “We Ring The Bell” campaign in 2018, both high schools made up a list of teachers who voluntarily wanted to receive training in sign language. The parent associations of the schools inserted a budget line in the annual budget to financially support these teachers in making education more inclusive at their schools.
Disability rights Vietnam
At the Ngoc My A primary school in Vietnam, officials, the school board, teachers, students, and parents learned about the rights of children with disabilities during the “We Ring The Bell” campaign. Evaluation after two months showed clear improvements in disability awareness and inclusion at the school: children with disabilities felt less timid and alienated and had more positive interactions with their peers without a disability.
For more information on Inclusive Play-based Early Childhood Education (IPECE), please visit:
> Inclusive Play-based Early Childhood Education (IPECE)
