Half the Sky, the bestselling 2009 book by Kristof and WuDunn, sparked a global movement (www.halftheskymovement.org) to address “the central moral challenge of our time” – ending the oppression of women and girls worldwide. The Half the Sky movement is producing a number of big projects to raise awareness for their cause, including educational materials, a four-hour miniseries on PBS, and now a Facebook social action game set to be released on November 13.
Under the executive production of Games for Change, Zynga will be collaborating with developer Firma Studio to create the new social action game, which has major support from the Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The mission of Zynga.org is to help make the world a better place through games,” said Ken Weber, Zynga.org’s Executive Director.” Zynga’s employees are eager to leverage social games for good, and we are honored to be collaborating with Games for Change and Frima on this important initiative.”
“Zynga’s role in bringing this game to life is particularly special to us,” said Half the Sky authors Kristof and WuDunn. “Using a game to potentially reach great numbers of people helps send a message not only that there are challenges women face around the world, but also that they bring great spirit and joy to their communities when they can live safe, normal lives.”
In a recent post about the Games for Change festival, we covered how good educational games can continue to improve learning even when the game isn’t being played anymore. Let’s hope Zynga’s developing prowess will inspire even more social action for the Half the Sky movement than a TW square in Words with Friends.
[…] covered gamification for social good in Half the Sky and SPENT to raise awareness for other issues but the Global Citizen Festival has brought […]