Need something to keep the children quiet on a wet Sunday that is also educational and may even help others? Well, how about a computer game that models getting humanitarian aid to victims of a country in crisis.
Produced by the United Nation's Food Agency - the World Food Programme - with assistance from companies such as Yahoo and Quicktime, the video game explores the problem of global hunger and the logistics of humanitarian aid work. It is designed to teach children something about the harsh reality of delivering aid in conflict zones such as Darfur in the Sudan, or Sri Lanka.
Called Food Force and targeted at children between the ages of 8 and 13, the game consists of six missions in which players join a crack team of emergency aid workers on a fictitious island called Sheylan.
Children are faced with a number of realistic challenges: piloting helicopters on reconnaissance missions, assembling nutritious ration packs on a tight budget, air-dropping food to remote villages, sourcing and purchasing food supplies, delivering truckloads of food through minefields and rebel-held territories, and using food to help people as they rebuild their lives.
Food Force was launched in 2005 and is available as a free internet download from www.food-force.com, from where it has been downloaded about 5 million times. There is an interesting mini-video trailer on the download site. The game file itself is quite large (227 MB - about 30 minutes on broadband they say) and there are versions for both PCs and Macs.
Posted by Fennie Somerville
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