A video game that offers hope
Posted by Richard Kuhlenschmidt Thu, 07 Dec 2006 20:31:00 GMT
HopeLab is a non-profit organization that combines rigorous research with innovative solutions to improve the health and quality of life of young people with chronic illness. Their first project is Re-Missionâ„¢—a video game developed for adolescents and young adults with cancer.
Imagine that you’re working in a research laboratory during the day. You watch cancer cells multiplying under a microscope. At night, you go home and play video games with your family and friends. Then you get the idea that a video game for young people with cancer might play a positive role in helping them fight their disease. A video game designed especially for kids with cancer might give them a feeling of power over their disease as they blast away at the cancer cells. And you could use top-notch research to test the game and see if it really would help the kids. That’s exactly what Pam Omidyar imagined. And in 2001, she founded HopeLab to make this idea a reality.
HopeLab has created www.Re-Mission.net to enable broad distribution of the game free of charge to young people with cancer, and to provide an open, interactive, online community for teens and young adults with cancer to support one another.
The game is available in English, Spanish and French.
