Animations, computer games and websites: they're all instruments used by Butterfly Works, a Dutch co-design studio working to reach – and teach – young people in developing countries. They'll tackle any issue from sexual and reproductive health to corruption.

Butterfly Works’ studio is located in large wooden building looking out over the River IJ in the Dutch capital Amsterdam. About a dozen people are hard at work in front of their computer screens; the average age is about 25. It's exactly the sort of scene one would expect to see in an organisation that develops computer games.

Dovetail
Butterfly Works was started in 2003 as a non-profit organisation working to contribute to greater equality in the world through co-design. The company was founded by Emer Beamer, Ineke Aquarius and Hester Ezra.

Emer Beamer: “Our company works for young people in developing countries. When we set about creating a computer game, we sit down and discuss it with the people who are going to be playing it. We talk about the issues that are important to them; the things that play a significant role in their lives. It has to dovetail into their experience of the world. And after that, local designers start creating the game."

Sex education
NairoBits was Butterfly Works' first project: young people from Nairobi's slums were trained as web designers and cultural entrepreneurs. The project was an enormous success and a number of the participants have found jobs with IT companies. NairoBits is now run independently by a Kenyan team and Butterfly Works has used the model to develop similar programmes in Uganda, Ethiopia and Zanzibar.

Butterfly Works followed up on the success of NairoBits with sex education computer programs: they used animation, quizzes, cartoons and games to address taboo subjects such as homosexuality and HIV/AIDS. The organisation worked closely with local NGOs and government sponsored groups. This method of working has helped the organisation develop good relations with the Ugandan and Nigerian governments.

Corruption
Beamer: “You have to take cultural sensitivities into account, you can't just launch into information about homosexuality even though that's what you're aiming to address. We used cheerful, funny little animation figures to make taboo subjects less scary and easier to talk about. Because they look so friendly and sweet, it makes it easier for teachers and students to talk about difficult subjects.”

The company's latest project is GetH2O; it's a serious computer game that aims to both inform and educate. It's set in a slum neighbourhood; the player can choose between corruption and making the community a better place to live. If you choose the corruption option, you can make money really quickly but it ruins your community. A player can also choose to build a school or hospital, which cost money but improve the community.

Butterfly Works is the first company to launch a serious game on a mobile platform. The game has been downloaded more than 40,000 times in the past two months. According to recent data, 95% of the people in Kenya who use the internet use a mobile phone to access it. The game has reached people in 20 countries so far.

Afghan girls
Beamer: “You always have to take the local technical capabilities into consideration. The game is extremely popular on the internet in Vietnam but we have no idea why. In Uganda, we gave away mobile phones with the game already loaded onto them and that worked really well. Mobile internet connections just don’t work well enough in Uganda to play the game.”

Sometimes the problems aren’t just technical: the company is currently setting up a project in Afghanistan to educate girls via computers and mobile phone help lines. The problem is that many of the teachers need lessons in order to start teaching. Despite that, Emer Beamer remains positive: “Who knows, maybe the project will help the teachers as well.”

(jric/imm)