While driving on my way home after an evening of board gaming, I reflected on the fun and learning moments I experienced over the past few months in the hobby, especially the time I got to spend with kids.

A light in my head lit. It started with a question: “What if we can share this experience with others?” “Particularly, what if we can share the board game hobby to the people who don’t have access?”

Orphanages and shelters immediately come to mind. If we can give the right board games to children who are less fortunate, can we make a difference? In addition, what value can it bring to the board gamer?

I met with the founder of He Cares Foundation Street Children Caring Center, Joe Dean Sola. He and his wife, Ardis, started He Cares around 20 years ago. He told me it all started with that one normal day, he had 20 pesos in his pocket waiting for a Jeepney ride home. In the shed he saw two street kids tattered and hungry, wading in the mud. He decided to just walk home and use his last money to buy food and drinks. The two kids ran to him begging. He then told them, “Yes, these are for you. And you know what kids? You will never go hungry again.”

The two kids are still with him, but are no longer kids. One is working for He Cares as the caretaker of the shelters, while the other is finishing up school. Kids in their shelter are not only fed, clothed and given a place to sleep, but are provided scholarships.

Bro. Joe Dean quickly understood the potential of board games to their kids and was gracious to let me spend a Saturday afternoon with them. So on my son and I went, bearing board games to donate from our collection, most of which we thought would be helpful to kids.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by Nanay Bing. She called the kids over and directed us to their garage where some tables have been set up for the games. The younger kids jittered in excitement while the older ones kept their cool, but were still accommodating.

I started out with a game of Word on the Street Jr. dividing the group into two teams. They took this game on quickly. As we went back and forth to the word challenges, I started assessing the skillset and attitude of each child and started to formulate the next set of games we could play.

After the game, I changed their grouping. I assigned one group to my son, who taught them how to play Rhino Hero. The others went to me, playing Unspeakable Words. Both were a big hit, and I was surprised at how well Unspeakable Words was spoken off (pun intended). They intently spelled out words from their hand of cards and rolled their dice diligently, hoping their cute little tokens wouldn’t be taken away if the roll was lower than their word score.

The ones who played were mostly boys – boisterous yet respectful. I found a lot of them were brilliant. We tried Love Letter and while some of them got it, I felt the card combos were still a little above what they were willing to learn. I am confident though that in further visits, we be able would ramp up the technicality of the game mechanics in progression.

After 3 hours my son and I were exhausted but content. The kids of He Cares have a good number of games to play with this Holiday season. Seeing the smiles on all those kids made us very happy.

So, if you have a board game that you feel you’ve outgrown, and it is something that can be taught to kids, you might want to find an orphanage or shelter near you and spend an hour or so to donate and teach them. Keep the games simple at the start, the kids are smarter than you think, but some board game mechanics may take a while to sink in. If you are interested in helping us out, feel free to drop us a message on our Facebook page.

The kids during our break kept asking if we could come back tomorrow. We will come back very soon. And I believe with all my heart, that with stronger support from the board game community, our little hobby can make a big difference.

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Written by: Ronald Villaver
Edited by: Reg Tolentino