The LEGO Foundation has announced the launch of a $143 million (900 million kroner) global challenge to fund impactful solutions focused on early childhood. 

Managed by Lever for Change, an affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Build A World of Play Challenge is designed to encourage organizations to make a positive impact on the youngest children globally. Grants will be awarded to groups exploring evidence-based innovative solutions to the biggest challenges facing children, such as access to quality early childhood education and care, adequate nutrition, eradication of toxic stress and violence in homes and communities, protection from pollution, and support for the social and emotional well-being of the whole family. 

“All children have the right to feel safe and have access to quality education and health care. But to date, early childhood development has been not just under-recognized, but grossly underfunded,” said LEGO Foundation board chair Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, who is also the fourth-generation representative of the family that established LEGO. “Children are the builders of tomorrow. If we do not invest in the youngest children in our society, we don't invest in our collective future.”

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/Favor_of_God)