FUEGA: A Game to Prevent Gender-Based Violence
We launched FUEGA in Paraguay — an educational, engaging, and accessible tool for learning about gender-based violence.
On November 25th, 2024, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we launched FUEGA in Paraguay — an educational, engaging, and accessible tool for learning about gender-based violence.
This board game was created through a collective process involving 24 civil society organizations, united by a shared commitment to fostering reflection and dialogue about the different forms of gender-based violence.
FUEGA was developed with two main purposes. First, to innovate methodologies that help bring the topic of gender-based violence to broader and more diverse audiences. Second, to create unique collective experiences with organizations, leveraging our diverse capabilities and approaches. The result is a practical tool to learn about and reflect on gender-based violence. Additionally, given the current context in which efforts to restrict the rights of women and sexual diversity are emerging in different ways and through various actors, we believe it is crucial to continue pursuing innovative, grassroots, and collective approaches directly with communities.
To achieve this, we invited several organizations with extensive experience in preventing gender-based violence to join what we called the Gender-Based Violence Gamification Lab. Over the course of several months, representatives from 24 organizations collaborated to collectively create this game.
FUEGA helps identify warning signs to prevent gender-based violence, encourages reflection and discussion about the forms and systems of violence, and highlights the historical struggles of women against violence.
It is a group board game suitable for participants aged 12 and up. Players work in teams, moving pieces along an S-shaped path on the board, symbolizing Solidarity/Sisterhood. This path intersects with the letter P for Patriarchy, emphasizing that we still live in a patriarchal system and that unity and sisterhood are key to confronting it. The game involves advancing through various squares by guessing facts about historical figures, collectives, or events, identifying types of violence or concepts, acting out scenarios, and even collaborating across teams.
The process had its challenges. Feminists of different ages and perspectives came together, and we didn’t always agree on everything. However, it was a rewarding exercise in reaching consensus through various playful methodologies and rigorous debate, from which we all learned. Time was not always on our side, but we managed to launch the game on a symbolic date that underscores the importance of this issue.
Now, we hope that FUEGA will continue to grow, that the pieces will be distributed far and wide, and that the game will spark meaningful conversations in diverse spaces to help prevent gender-based violence.
Diakonia's work for Gender Equality
Diakonia strives to achieve gender equality by focusing on women’s political participation, economic empowerment, the right to live a life free from violence, people’s right to make decisions about their own bodies, and everyone’s right to love whoever they want. We know both men and women need to believe in and work for this if lasting changes are to be realised. We also know that women’s rights organizations and LGBT organizations are the ones who drive gender equality forward. Therefore, a key role for Diakonia is to be a true ally to precisely such organizations.