Erkinay is a young girl studying to be a seamstress in a vocational school. She lives in a small mountain village near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Everyone around her hints that it is time to think about marriage, but she dreams of a great career as an actress. One day, on the shore of Sary Kol, a lake near the village, she meets a mysterious woman in black. This is how the game Mystery of Sary Kol begins. After this, the players are invited to make decisions for Erkinay, and her fate depends on these decisions.
“When starting this project, we wanted to give girls the opportunity to dream, make decisions and feel independent,” says Munara Beknazarova, who had the idea for the game.
Munara Beknazarova runs Open Line Public Foundation, which works to prevent domestic violence and protect the rights of girls. The Foundation developed the Mystery of Sary Kol game to help girls learn and protect their rights. The game was developed with financial support from UNICEF as part of the joint European Union and United Nations Spotlight Initiative.
This global and local partnership supported Kyrgyzstan to tackle a long-term serious issue of child, early and forced marriage, the elimination of which is SDG target 5.3. As of 2018 when the latest data was reported, 13 per cent of 20–24-year-old women in Kyrgyzstan had been married or in a union already before age 18, and 0.3 per cent before age 15 (United Nations Global SDG Indicators Database, indicator 5.3.1). The figures are likely an underestimate since many child marriages go unreported from fear of social stigma. The game serves as a great example of how such issues can be addressed in a multi-stakeholder partnership (SDG target 17.17).
In two years, the mobile game has been downloaded more than 40,000 times. After its launch, the Open Line Public Foundation conducted a survey among its users. It showed that those who played the game felt significantly more strongly that child marriage is a crime and were more willing to help those who are forced into marriage.
The game also made the girls much more confident that they could, through dialogue, convince their parents to abandon the practice of forced marriage.
“We were happy to hear from users that they were able to help all the characters in the game successfully go through the challenges and feel the change,” Munara rejoiced.
According to her, the game’s reach is dozens of times greater than traditional lectures and meetings. Moreover, it is important to dilute traditional teaching methods with interactivity. And games, through immersion and engagement with the characters, can achieve more effective results.
In July 2023, the game made it to the world’s largest annual Games for Change festival, which celebrates games that promote positive social change. Moreover, it was a finalist in the Best Civics Game category. More than 340 games and apps from around the world were entered in this category.
Munara recalls that while researching mobile game development, she came across the Games for Change website. There was an entire section with a catalogue of digital and non-digital games addressing social issues.
“I was really inspired by the vision that Games for Change pursue. And there I was, years later, attending this festival in New York and presenting our game from Kyrgyzstan there!” Munara proudly notes.
“Games can and should be more than just fun. They should also have a meaning. Today we are raising new players who are changing and moving towards positive change through games,” says Munara.
With its educational component, the Mystery of Sary Kol also breaks the stereotype of girls who play mobile games. It is believed that games on mobile phones are a “waste of time”. But thanks to games like the Mystery of Sary-Kol, girls not only develop themselves, but also expand the limits of gender stereotypes and attitudes.
By the way, this is not Munara’s first successful work. Earlier she launched the game Spring in Bishkek, which was downloaded more than 150,000 times.
The game “Mystery of Sary Kol” was created by the Open Line Public Foundation with the participation of an international team of developers, and with the support of UNICEF in Kyrgyzstan as part of the Spotlight initiative, a joint initiative by the European Union and the United Nations to end violence against women and girls in Kyrgyzstan. The game can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Palais des Nations, Geneva
