[hr-education] UN refugee agency computer game beats out Mozart for Austrian award

25 September 2006 -- A United Nations computer game aimed at promoting
positive attitudes towards refugees by taking players through the trauma
of fleeing persecution and seeking asylum has beaten the world famous
composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to garner a prestigious Austrian award
for an interactive computer game.

LastExitFlucht (LastExitFlight) - which can be found at
http://www.LastExitFlucht.org and played free of charge - was awarded the
Austrian Multimedia and E-Business State Prize in the category for
'Knowledge and Learning,' after beating off stiff competition from a
CD-Rom about the life of Mozart.

"We are working with real refugees every day all over the world - so we
know their reality," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) public
information officer Roland Schoenbauer said, accepting the award last week
before 400 selected guests, including the speaker of the Austrian
parliament Andreas Khol.

A jury of 14 experts from universities, the corporate sector and the media
which chose the winner praised LastExitFlucht as “a game which
excellently creates empathy for the situation of refugees.” While it
is aimed at teenagers, the panel said the game also forced adults to
reflect on political attitudes towards refugees. They praised the game's
realism and design.

The game, launched in March by UNHCR for the youth market in
German-speaking countries, takes players through the experience that
millions of refugees face, including fleeing their homes and struggling to
with a new culture and language in a foreign land.

Among the different scenarios, players must overcome obstacles in leaving
their homes in search of safety and assistance. In exile, they must cope
with the difficulties of starting a new school, not knowing the language
and having to make new friends. They also experience what refugees go
through when facing discrimination on the streets, applying for a job and
generally starting a new life.

It is a reworked version of a Swedish-language game, Motallaodds, which
was designed by UNHCR in Stockholm and launched last December. There is
also a Norwegian version and the agency hopes to translate it into other
languages, including Danish and English.

LastExitFlucht also provides a factual library including interviews with
real refugees and charts the history of asylum in Europe, explaining the
difficulties refugees in Europe currently face in upholding their rights.
With some 120,000 hits since its launch, the site has received
enthusiastic support from young people, teachers and the media in Germany,
Switzerland and Austria.

UN News Service





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