Refugees, Conflict, and Food Distributions: Learning through GameingBy Bryan Schaaf on Jeudi, novembre 8, 2007.
This is important as the policy and programmatic decisions that the U.S. government makes concerning support for humanitarian programs has worldwide implications. We should be paying attention.
I bring this up because there are a number of really interesting online games intended to entertain and teach youth at the same time. The latest I have seen, "Against All Odds", puts the player in the position of an asylum seeker fleeing from human rights abuses in a conflict affected country. No country is immune from displacement, whether by natural disaster as by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or by the flooding in Southern Haiti or because of conflict as in Iraq and Sri Lanka.
What is novel about this game is not only that it illustrates the (often life threatening) challenges faced in reaching another country, but it also illustrates challenges in integrating within another country and starting a new life. The game is divided into segments, each of which are linked to lesson plans for teachers. In this way, the game can be played in a classroom setting.
The second game, "Darfur is Dying", first puts one in the position of a Darfuri refugee in Chad. The first task of the game is to forage for water, a task which places women at risk of sexual assault on a daily basis. Later the player is introduced to the management of a refugee camp that could become (and does) a janjawid target.
The third game "Food Force" illustrates the World Food Programme's logistical challenges in getting food to hungry, and often conflicted affected, populations throughout the world. Where there is malnutrition, health will be poor. Where this is hunger, there will be instability. This game allows the user to try his or her hand at organizing food deployments and distributions.
These games are linked to blogs, web learning resources, partner organizations, and teaching materials. All are available in several languages. If you have children, consider playing one of these games with them. If you are a teacher, this could be an excellent way to get your students thinking about humanitarian issues. It may be an excellent way to plant a seed.
Know of any other awareness raising games? We'd love to hear about them.
Bryan |
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Video Game Fights for Behavior Change in Kenya
The characters in the game speak Sheng, a blend of English and Swahili popular among urban youth
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NAIROBI, 30 July 2009 (PlusNews) - At the community centre in Mukuru, a slum in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, teenagers spend hours engrossed in a video game, but they are not battling other-worldly forces with super-human weapons; instead, they are finding their way through a familiar-looking city, trying to negotiate real-life situations and learn how to avoid HIV infection.
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"Pamoja Mtaani", Swahili for "Together in the Hood", is the first multi-player PC video game to try to teach young people how to avoid HIV infection. Players assume the identity of one of five characters who find themselves car-jacked in a matatu (minibus taxi) and attempt to recover their stolen goods and save an injured woman. Through a series of sub-plots, the players are put into positions where the decisions they make can put them at risk of contracting or preventing HIV infection.
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"You are able to relate to the behaviour of any one of the characters in the video game and you are able to discard bad behaviour … [such as] using drugs because you can actually see drug abuse leads that particular character into acquiring HIV due to recklessness," said Perpetua Nduku, one of the young people at the Mukuru community centre, which is visited by about 35 teens a day - 50 a day at the weekend.
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The game targets young people aged between 15 and 19 and focuses on five key behaviours that can reduce HIV infections among youth: delaying the onset of sexual activity, abstinence, avoiding multiple sex partners, correct and consistent condom use, and uptake of voluntary counselling and testing services.
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Local hip-hop artists provide the authentically local, urban soundtrack, and the characters in the game speak Sheng, a mix of Swahili and English commonly used by urban youth.
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An in-your-face HIV prevention campaign
"I can now negotiate condom use with my boyfriend and I can tell any other girl who has never been here how to do it because the language used [in the video game] is the same language I would normally use with my boyfriend or with any other person," said 20-year-old Grace Wangeci.
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The game was developed by Warner Bros Entertainment in partnership with the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria recently gave Warner Bros Entertainment a business excellence award for Pamoja Mtaani.
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Launched in December 2008, the game is available at four sites in Nairobi; following a review in June 2009, PEPFAR and its local partners now plan to extend the game around the capital and country-wide.
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Job Akuno, technical adviser for comprehensive prevention programmes at Hope Worldwide Kenya, which runs the community centre in Mukuru, says young people in the area have embraced the game and learned from it, underlining the need to find more engaging ways to inform the youth about HIV.
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"Using the video games provides a platform for reaching out to the youth in a creative way and which is enjoyable to them," he said, adding that the game's features had broader messages, such as teaching young women to stand up for their rights and improve their self-esteem.
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Kenya's national HIV/AIDS strategy considers youth aged between 15 and 24 "most-at-risk"; young women have an HIV prevalence of 6.1 percent, four times higher than their male counterparts. Studies have shown that although knowledge of HIV/AIDS among the youth is high, many young people continue to engage in risky behaviour, such as having multiple sexual partners and inconsistent condom use.
Definitely food for thought!
Definitely food for thought! I am a high school English and French teacher who has traveled to Haiti on an educational mission trip. My students in the Midwest expressed lots of interest in the economic and political obstacles their counterparts in Haiti face. Over the years I have conducted service learning units with schools in Haiti and South Africa in conjunction with novels that my students have read. Gaming is absolutely unfamiliar to me, but my students of course are fluent in it. I have been looking for ways to make my students' learning real. I will check out "Darfur is Dying" and "Food Force." Thank you for the suggestion.
ICED: The Immigration Game
Below is a game revolving around immigration to the United States: http://www.icedgame.com/
another game
Check out
Ayiti: The Cost of Life at
http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html
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