To address these challenges, Play for Peace, uses sport and play to create structured opportunities for young people to debate, reflect, and engage constructively with diversity. The project is led by Youth for Peace Young Leader Wevyn Muganda, and supported by the Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme, implemented by UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS).
Through her engagement in the programme, Wevyn received specialised training, mentoring and a financial grant from UNESCO. This enabled her to unite young people from diverse social, cultural, and geographic backgrounds to co-design and pilot a civic engagement card game titled Ballot Battle: The Campaign Trail
Wevyn Muganda
Wevyn Muganda
The game was intentionally developed as a tool to encourage dialogue. Careful attention given to its content and structure - from the characters and scenarios included to the issues debated and the perspectives represented - to reflect Kenya’s diversity. These choices reinforced the ethos of inclusion and supported broader reflection on representation and leadership in the country.
The game explores political and social dynamics related to mobility and inclusion, helping participants engage with the realities of living in urban hubs. During gameplay, students assumed roles linked to election processes, such as presidential candidates and citizens. This allowed them to debate policy priorities, respond to scenarios, and reflect on leadership and civic responsibility. Through its card decks, the game introduced prompts reflecting real-life tensions around representation and access to opportunities, including affordable housing for youth, brain drain and displacement linked to large infrastructure projects. These issues provided an entry point for dialogue on how mobility can shape belonging, participation and social cohesion.
Wevyn Muganda
The sessions showed that gameplay can create space for honest dialogue around stereotypes, representation, and trust. Participants reflected unconscious biases that may influence civic choices, including assumptions that are based on a person’s background or perceived identity.
Since its development, Ballot Battle: The Campaign Trail has continued to reach new audiences. 30 copies of the game have already been distributed to universities, community centers and cafés, with another 70 planned. By expanding access to the game beyond campus settings, the initiative aims to bring these conversations to a wider and more diverse group of young people, creating new spaces for dialogue around leadership, civic responsibility, and cooperation.
Wevyn Muganda
The Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme is supported by the generous contribution of the Kingold Group.
The game explores political and social dynamics related to mobility and inclusion, helping participants engage with the realities of living in urban hubs. During gameplay, students assumed roles linked to election processes, such as presidential candidates and citizens. This allowed them to debate policy priorities, respond to scenarios, and reflect on leadership and civic responsibility. Through its card decks, the game introduced prompts reflecting real-life tensions around representation and access to opportunities, including affordable housing for youth, brain drain and displacement linked to large infrastructure projects. These issues provided an entry point for dialogue on how mobility can shape belonging, participation and social cohesion.
Wevyn Muganda
The sessions showed that gameplay can create space for honest dialogue around stereotypes, representation, and trust. Participants reflected unconscious biases that may influence civic choices, including assumptions that are based on a person’s background or perceived identity.
Since its development, Ballot Battle: The Campaign Trail has continued to reach new audiences. 30 copies of the game have already been distributed to universities, community centers and cafés, with another 70 planned. By expanding access to the game beyond campus settings, the initiative aims to bring these conversations to a wider and more diverse group of young people, creating new spaces for dialogue around leadership, civic responsibility, and cooperation.
Wevyn Muganda
The Youth for Peace: UNESCO Intercultural Leadership Programme is supported by the generous contribution of the Kingold Group.
Source: unesco
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