Facebook game by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn aims to raise awareness of women’s issues and turn game playing into fund raising

A new game by Pulitzer Prize–winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, authors of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide turns playing a game into an opportunity to donate money to nonprofit organizations around the world.

In the game, played on Facebook, you start by meeting Radhika, an Indian woman who is first faced with the challenge of finding the money to get her sick child to a doctor. As the game progresses, Radhika will take you on a journey that later moves to Kenya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and the United States.

Radhika faces various real-life examples of challenges women face and players can help out with donations of virtual goods, for example. The players can then make equivalent real-world donations to seven nonprofit organizations woven into the game.

“We want people to be exposed to the issues, and to tell their friends,” WuDunn told Glamour magazine. “We partnered with Games for Change to produce something impacting: $500,000 in funds is now available for players to unlock and trigger real-life donations of books and life-saving surgeries from sponsors.”

Half the Sky: The Game will match player’s virtual donations into real-world donations to the following non-profits: Fistula Foundation, Girls & Education Mentoring Services, Heifer International, ONE, Room to Read, the United Nations Foundation, and World Vision.