Kenya’s Chezo Serious Gaming Hub aims to solve water problems in Africa

Gaming has changed the lives of many as well as developed into something more than just a form of entertainment. It’s become a form of learning and even social change.

The Chezo Serious Gaming Hub will launch in Kenya — backed by VIA Water — and is a project designed to seek and support initiatives geared at solving water problems around the African continent.

It aims to bring together gaming experts from the Netherlands and Kenya to inspire and incubate local startups.

Other partners for the hub includes iHub, an incubator for technological growth in Kenya; Upande, a company specialising in web mapping and geographical information systems; Deltares, an independent institute for applied research particularly in the field of water and subsurface water; Floodcom, which organises different workshops in crisis management and The Barn, a game development company located in the Netherlands.

“Using games to educate and teach is a long standing tradition in Africa. Think of the famous and, probably, the oldest ‘Mancala’ game — also known as ‘the sowing game’ — used to teach agriculture and problem solving. Games form an integral part of African tradition,” writes programs manager at iHub, Gladys Kitony, in a blog post.

Once the project is complete, all training material from the hub will be freely available to any entrepreneur.

The project will take place in two phases:

1. Comprise gaming workshops which will end in a “game jam” to select the winners of the programme, who will proceed to the second stage
2. Once the finalists have reached this stage, they will receive additional support from the consortium’s partners to further develop their projects, which will take four months to complete

The three overall winning teams will also receive cash grants of up to €2 000 (US$2200)

30 people will get the chance to participate in the programme which you can find right here.

Featured image: Sam Howzit via Flickr.