This is the M&E Thursday Talk from March 11th, 2021, as Dr. Dudi Peles, Co-Founder of Games for Peace, led a discussion on “Using Video Games to Build Peace.”
Children everywhere love to play games and video games in particular have become widely popular in recent years. Seven years ago, Games for Peace began pioneering the use of video games for fostering dialog and trust between young people in conflict zones. Online games dissolve borders – physical, national or emotional – and have the unique ability to connect unprecedented numbers of players from the privacy and safety of their home computer.
In our discussion, Dudi Peles shared the origin story of Games for Peace and the methodology behind their internationally-praised program. We discussed the various stages of their development, from ideation and pilot testing to gradual growth and affecting thousands of children. Dudi shared both success stories and occasional failures, highlighting how creativity and the strong will of volunteers has created a shared, positive experience between Arab and Jewish children in the Middle East.