NPR · 1 day ago

The Game Schisto & Ladders Has Educational Value Plus Worms

When a parasitic disease affects a third of residents in a Nigerian village yet remains neglected by global funding, the people closest to it find their own ways to fight back. Researcher and parasitologist Cynthia Umunnakwe helped develop "Schisto & Ladders," a board game that teaches children in rural Ogun State how schistosomiasis spreads through the very rivers where they fish, wash, and play - replacing the classic chute with a sliding worm. "So we are hoping that by playing this game that the schoolchildren will actually translate the knowledge acquired into changing their behaviors," Umunnakwe said, and the evidence suggests they do: in a six-month study, more than two-thirds of students who played the game came to understand a life-saving drug they had never heard of before, with 65% signing up to receive it. What the story quietly reveals is how much can shift when someone meets people - especially children - exactly where they are, with curiosity and care rather than top-down instruction. The boy who reached the final "Schisto-free child" square and called out "Hey look, I'm on top!" captured something larger than a game: the possibility of a child growing up with knowledge that his community was never given.