RefJam: Video games as an empowerment tool
Challenge
Despite the huge audience and relevance of video games worldwide, humanitarian organizations have very limited engagement with video games as a potential tool to empower and include forcibly displaced and stateless people both socially and economically.
Solution
Unlock the potential of gaming as a vehicle for digital livelihoods, wellbeing, and integration through game-design workshops, a game-development festival, and an incubator programme for selected teams to develop prototypes.
Impact
Informed by an existing feasibility study and robust community engagement, the RefJam project will empower around 500 displaced and stateless gaming enthusiasts to tell their stories, build community, develop digital skills, and access digital livelihoods.
Project impact
Other information
As part of this initiative, 48 children and young people took part in weekly classes led by digital educators. The Community Gaming Centre established as part of the project became self-sustainable in 2025 and is still operating. Thanks to this project, displaced and stateless people in North Macedonia have been recognized as eligible recipients for free laptops through the largest connectivity nonprofit in the country, Doniraj Kompjuter. The project also developed a blueprint to scale the Community Gaming Centre model to other displacement contexts.
Read more about this project in our webstory.