Newsletter – April 2017

Projects

ANTURA AND THE LETTERS (http://antura.org)

  • VGWB first game has been released in March and it’s available for Download for FREE for both Android and iOS
  • Antura has been officially announced to be one of the two winners of EduApp4Syria international competition on March 20, during UNESCO/UNHCR Mobile Learning Week 2017 in Paris
  • So far we had more than 10.000 downloads including both platforms and the players feedback has been extremely positive so far: 4.6 stars on Google Play with more than 100 users’ ratings
  • The official field testing (run by an external partner in Jordan) is about to start… but our “private” field testing has already started in Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon
  • We will keep testing/improving the game until December 2017
  • In the meantime, we are also working to “clean” the project and make public our Github repository (to be fully Open Source): we expect this to happen in the coming weeks
  • NOTE: all Antura channels are still private because Slack does not allow to convert a private channel into a public one… but if you are interested in knowing more about the project or help the project, just let us know and we will invite you join the relevant channels!

ONE WORLD A MILLION STORIES

  • We still haven’t found any source of funding for the project but we are working intensively on it, especially within the B-Value incubation program specifically designed for Spanish NGOs. We have been selected for the second round of the program that will run until October 2017.
  • Originally we planned to include only tales from developing countries… but we are now opening up to any tale/story that could be relevant to Families (not only kids but also parents), especially tales that other NGOs have produced & printed already, like the book “Amic Meu!” in which Syrian kids tell their story with their drawings
  • We formalized (in Spanish) a first draft of the business model for this project in this video presentation
  • ENTI students are approaching the end of their internship, so most likely in the coming weeks we will re-organize the team

WAR PHOTO HERO

  • Unfortunately it was not possible to develop a prototype with students so far and the French Red Cross decided to change approach: they are now preparing a contest among French Universities and Schools asking teams of students to present game concepts about IHL. VGWB still plans to collaborate with the French Red Cross and we may help the winning team to execute/produce their concept.
  • War Photo Hero concept is currently in standby but we may resume it if we find the right conditions to prototype/develop it

 

About Us

STAFF

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • VGWB hired 2 part-time employees:
    • Monte Villar (Vice-President) who is charge of all the paperwork and the relationship with our community members
    • Mar Mas (Communication Director) who focuses on communication and partnerships
  • Francesco Cavallari (President) is still the only person dedicated full-time to VGWB but he is not an employee (he is a freelance and he can get contracted on a project basis, like any other member of the community)

COMMUNITY

  • Our community has grown to more than 150 members from 25 different countries!
  • We are still trying to improve the onboarding and follow-up process in order to let every member contribute at the best of his/her possibilities… so please let us know if you have any suggestion/feedback!
  • More in detail we realized that the large majority of Slack conversations happen in private channels and we are trying to change that in order to let everybody join and contribute!
  • One example is the #babel_translator channel which allowed several community members to help us with the translations for Antura
  • Another example is the #website channel that had been inactive for a long time but it’s going to be central point for the new version of vgwb.org

OTHER NEWS

  • VGWB was present at FMX 2017 in Stuttgart (Germany) – Games For Change track  
  • We have been selected for the Phase 2 of the BBVA Momentum program and we will present VGWB in Madrid on May 11th
  • VGWB is now officially registered in Catalunya as NGO for International Cooperation and we may apply for International Cooperation subventions in the coming weeks

 

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