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Words over Weapons, serious mobile game

Challenges Entered: 
An interactive cd-rom program and a mobile game that teaches non-violent life skills and behaviors, works with young people to develop a culture of peace and creates a network of young peace makers. The cd-rom already exists in South Africa and the mobile game will be developed such as to be easily copied to other (post) conflict regions. We will start the game in Kenya.

Program Origins:

'Words over Weapons' eLearning program was orginally designed with and for young people in South Africa. www.wordsoverweapons.com
It is currently running there since 2006  in many schools and youth centers. Because of its success in South Africa and due to the need in Kenya since the post election violence we have decided to adapt the eLearning program for Kenya and develop a mobile game to enhance its reach.

Our Objective:

To foster a culture of peace amongst young people in Kenya, using an interactive mobile game combined with e-learning cd-rom program. The ultimate outcome will be prevention and reduction of violence, an improvement in interpersonal relationships and thus a better quality of life
The mobile game model will be applicable to many similar situations and developed such as to be easily copied.

Our Innovation:

The program uses e-learning and m-learning programs to teach non-violent communication skills, using engaging local content. The educational approach is highly participatory. The system is especially designed for places with minimal infrastructures. The contents of the program combine cartoons with assignments and a teachers section to guide them in facilitating the program in the class. The program then builds on this basis by using mobile-learning to spread information about a non-violent lifestyle amongst a much bigger group of young people using peer educators. Peer educators use an interactive (serious) game on their mobile phone to spread information on important communication skills. The game will run on any mobile phone with a color screen, it can be spread virally through blue tooth or via cable, so it will be shared at no extra cost. The mobile game approach will serve as a basis for similar games in other similar settings.

In addition:

Butterfly Works has a 10 year track record of developing digital learning programs with and for young people in Africa on topics of life importance such as HIV/Aids prevention, gender violence and conflict resolution. Our methods are of co-creation whereby we work together with a variety of cross-disciplinary parties such as ngos, young people, health and peace experts, designers, photographers, youth workers, teachers and change agents.

Examples of current programs are:

'Learning about Living' an e-learning environment teaching sexual and reproductive health and rights for youth in Nigeria, based on the `Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education`curriculum formulated by the Nigerian Ministries of Health and Education. www.learningaboutliving.com

NairoBits, digital design school for youth from the slums of Nairobi. Since 2000 training young people in web design and programming, they nearly all get jobs in the Kenyan IT industry. www.nairobits.com

'The world starts with me' an e-learning program on HIV/AIDS prevention developed in Uganda and now implemented in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. www.theworldstarts.org

'Unsung Peace Heroes' an SMS campaign created to vote the people that promoted peace in Kenya during the post-election violence in 2008. www.peaceheroes.ushahidi.com

Project Details
Project url: 
http://www.wordsoverweapons.com
Project video: 
Supporting organization: 
Butterfly Works, social design agency and NairoBits, digital design school in Nairobi for youth from the slums with a network of 30 community based organisations. www.nairobits.com
Project Assessment
Financial support: 
Project has financial support
Sustainability Model: 
After the initial funding to create the mobile application and implement it in the schools with the cd-rom program, the mobile game will be virally spread through peers and therefore will incurr no additional costs.It will require updates and new advanced versions at a later stage.  In addition: Yes
Expertise needed: 
We can design the visuals and the interaction models for the mobile game but need a programming partner to build same. We wish to work the the Saints, a company in the Netherlands who have experience in building games and programs for many telephone platforms and specialize themselves in developing applications with a broad reach of devices. If possible we would prefer to find a company or programming group in Kenya to build the game. If anybody knows such a group we would love to be brought into contact.
Project goals: 
1. Participatory concept development workshop with key stakeholders including youth groups;2. Developing a prototype game;3. Testing the prototype game for attractiveness, usability and technical issues;4. Finalising product development;5. Starting viral campaign with key young people to spread game;
Identified Obstacles: 
The game will work on mobiles with color screens but not on older text-only mobiles. It would be great to find a way for people with text only mobiles to also interact with the game, we will search for ways fo doing this while testing the protoype. Also to make the game more effective it should be combined with additional activities such as peace clubs and e-learning schools. This is part of our overall plan. and we are currently in discussion with a number of ngos working on conflict resolution to partner with on this.

Location

Nairobi and Amsterdam
Kenya
Submitted by Butterfly Works on March 15, 2009 - 7:22am

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