Learn to play and play to learn: building resilience of local communities in South Sudan’s conflict through games

Abstract

In many ways, games of many different sorts have a strong potential for education. Through their different characteristics, they allow the players to prepare themselves for challenges that they can be forced to face in their day-to-day life. By imitating daily life gestures or by developing essential skills for social interactions or specific complex situations, they are a powerful tool of people’s inner development. Following that remark, the idea presented in this text is that games can support international humanitarian organizations in their project activities, specifically when conducting trainings or awareness sessions, as they allow the humanitarian workers to approach sensitive topics in a light way and thus make the communication process easier to grasp for beneficiaries.