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Ayiti: The Cost of Life
Game URL: CostofLife.org
Developer: Global Kids and GameLab
Non-Profit: The game was co-developed through an after school progam called playing 4 keeps. http://www.holymeatballs.org/p4k.htm
Release Date: Nov, 2006
Project Lead: Barry Joseph
Funding Sources: Microsoft Corporation.
Sponsors/In-kind donations:
Budget:
Overall: 200k
Secured: 200k
Brief Description
Ayiti: The Cost of Life is a game that challenges its players to manage a rural family of five in Haiti over four years and keep them healthy, get them educated, and help them survive. Develop in a unique partnership between youth in an after school program and a professional game developer, the game has been played over a half million times since its launch six months ago and has proven to be a hit as both an engaging game and as a tool for education.
Full Description
Global Kids has established itself as an innovative leader in using online games to promote global awareness and engaged citizenship. Through the Playing 4 Keeps program, Global Kids trains urban youth to develop games about important world issues. This work has been cited as a best practice within Henry Jenkins's report for the MacArthur Foundation. Global Kids' gaming programs are made possible through collaborative relationships with the game design company Gamelab, UNICEF, and TakingITGlobal, among others. Playing 4 Keeps (P4K) uses online games as a form of youth media informed by international issues. Together with Gamelab, an independent game company, Global Kids developed an innovative curriculum for engaging youth in the design, development and dissemination of high quality games that have the potential to educate their peers around the world. Playing 4 Keeps is supported by Microsoft's U.S. Partners in Learning Mid-Tier initiative. Last year, Global Kids Youth Leaders gained leadership, research, and game design skills while producing a socially conscious online game, Ayiti: The Cost of Life. The youth chose to design a game that focuses on the issue of poverty as an obstacle to education and uses the country of Haiti as a case study. The game and its associated curriculum were released through UNICEF's Child Alert: Haiti website and TakingITGlobal's network of over 170,000 educators worldwide. Curriculum material is available for educators. Since it was released in October 2006, hundreds of thousands of people have played Ayiti. The game and the after school component are being evaluated by the Center for Children and Technology.
Target Audience: game players, teenagers, educators, non-profits
Social Issues Addressed: poverty,
Purpose:
To teach through game play about the interconnected forces that confront those living in dire poverty. And to show that a game can be used for education.
Metrics:
How? We are measuring the impact of making the game on the teens who made it, how teachers are using it, and what learning is achieved by those who play it.
What outcomes have been measured? The evaluation is currently under way.
Press Coverage:
http://www.holymeatballs.org/press.htm
Press Release URL: http://www.holymeatballs.org/2006/10/press_global_kids_launches_com.html
Public Contact Information
Name: Barry Josepg
Email: barry@globalkids.org
Press Contact Name: Jonah Kokodyniak
Press Contact Email: jonah@globalkids.org
Game Tags: teen, poverty, education, global, haiti, globalkids, education
Where you can play this game: Costoflife.org Online. We often customize it for various sites that want to host it.
