Ayiti: The Cost of Life

This initiative draws on information and communication technology (ICT) to educate youth about poverty as an obstacle to education through what is intended to be an engaging, realistic, experience. It was developed by youth, for youth; P4P participants were inspired to create an online game focused on these issues based on their learning about the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and about obstacles to receiving an adequate education that youth face around the world. They then decided to use Haiti as a case study and setting for the game.

Specifically, Ayiti: The Cost of Life involves the player assuming the roles of family members living in rural Haiti. Over the course of the game, the player must choose among and balance various goals, such as achieving education, making money, staying healthy, and maintaining happiness while encountering unexpected events. The player must make many decisions that contribute to or detract from achieving his or her chosen goals. Players have the responsibility of guiding the family through 16 seasons (4 years) of working, building the community, and going to school. (Click here to access Ayiti: The Cost of Life and various weblogs/links with further information about it.)

The game is designed as a learning tool that educators and youth workers can use in their classrooms. Global Kids developed 2 workshops with supporting materials for teachers and facilitators around the game; these materials offer a number of actions for young people who want to make a difference in the real world around poverty. Specifically, the first workshop and lesson plan is designed as a tool for helping youth process their experience after playing the game. The second workshop and accompanying lesson plan can be conducted either before playing the game, as a way to introduce students to the game's issues, or after playing the game, as a way to help them better understand the links between poverty and access to education. (In this endeavour, TakingITGlobal partnered with Global Kids to offer Ayiti on TIGed, a thematic classroom that connects the Ayiti game to a virtual classroom toolset, allowing educators to guide their students through an interactive learning experience that includes Ayiti gameplay. Click here to access the teaching materials.)

Education, Poverty.

P4K is a youth media project involving 24 students from South Shore High School, a largely minority school of approximately 2,300 students located in Canarsie, Brooklyn, in working with professional game developers in the design, development and dissemination of professionally-produced online games about various social issues. During the school year, programme participants conducted research about global issues and gained digital literacy, leadership, and career skills. Students participated in workshops on such issues as children's rights, racism, health, and education, and then selected an issue on which to focus the game. With professionals from Gamelab, they learned about a range of issues related to game design as a form of critical media literacy as well as the game industry and the game development process. The students also took numerous field trips and have spoken about their work at various conferences. Participants have documented the process of creating the game in a blog (click here to view it).

One young player has written that Ayiti: The Cost of Life made her "think about consequences that a real family in Haiti would face without being preachy. There isn't a clear strategy to win this game, either. At the beginning, it gives you a choice of four strategies you can follow. However, if you play this game more than once you will see that it doesn't matter which strategy you pick - getting ahead is difficult...[j]ust like real life."