International partnerships
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Game on sexual health
Shkorey realises culturally sensitive care for newcomers
The development of the serious game ‘Shkorey’ was launched in Leeuwarden in June 2020. The educational game – and more importantly, the road to it – aims to promote knowledge of sexual health and birth care among Eritrean youth in the Netherlands. Together with leading Ghanaian studio Leti Arts , 8D is responsible for the graphic and technical realisation. We are also developing the concept for the game in co-creation with young people and healthcare professionals.
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The power of Shkorey
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Makes sexuality discussable in an approachable way
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Connects to the most pressing questions pregnancy and birth care
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Implementation of Digital Care Map brings caregiver closer
Reducing the distance between caregiver and newcomer with a digital game
The game Shkorey (“cutie” in Tigrinya) is a digital game that provides Eritrean newcomers to the Netherlands with information on the human body, sexuality, birth care and raising small children in the Netherlands. Collaborators in the project include the Municipality of Leeuwarden, Rutgers Foundation, Lemat Foundation, GGD Fryslân, PincKlouds, 8D, Leti Arts and several cultural mediators and Eritrean youth.
Besides the (further) development and implementation of the game, Shkorey organises a broad peripheral programming with a lot of input from the target groups themselves. For instance, a creative team of Eritrean youth has been established to collaborate on content for the game, from videos to storylines. Since the launch of the game, this group of young people has been actively working on the implementation and promotion of the results.
Approach
During the entire development process of the game , co-creation was given free rein, from start to finish. In cooperation with project leader Geertje Postma, 8D organised sessions with both Eritrean youngsters and care professionals. What does a brand-new Eritrean parent encounter in the Netherlands? And what tools does a care provider need to effectively inform this target group? All results, insights and game modules created during game development in Leeuwarden will be shared within a National Knowledge Network and by joining programmes such as Kansrijke Start and Nu Niet Zwanger.
Initiator Geertje Postma: ‘The road to the game was very important for the change we are striving for. Eritrean youth themselves made an important contribution to the final product – and during that process all kinds of great conversations about sexual health, the human body, birth care and parenting already emerged.’
Case: Game on sexual health
“I experience the people at 8D Games as charismatic and passionate. In addition, they work in a very structured way. Leti Arts has done quite a few international collaborations before and those were not all such a smooth ride like Shkorey has been so far.”
Eyram Tawia
CEO
Results
In consultation with Eritrean youth, a narrative game concept was chosen in which you follow a group of friends. Each character represents dilemmas around a particular theme, such as the human body or sexual health. You decide how this character acts in different situations that come up in the story. Each choice affects the course of the story. Once the chapter is finished, a knowledge quiz follows. This quiz will also be available separately, where players can challenge each other, among other things.
An important additional feature is the integration of a local healthcare map. This allows players to easily find a nearby healthcare provider who deals with a topic raised in the game.
The technical realisation of Shkorey is currently underway. The game is expected to be delivered in February 2023. Read more at Shkorey.nl
Read more about social design
In all our projects, we work according to a proprietary social design method which we have refined over the past decade based on experience. Our approach combines the best of several design-oriented methodologies, with co-creation with stakeholders at its core. The beauty of this approach is that we allow room for course changes based on co-creation, while keeping the momentum going by making task allocations and schedules as concrete as possible.
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