| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The main idea of The Choice is to teach people by simplifying complicated matters of law into easy-to-understand data through an informative and enjoyable method. Additionally, The Choice was approved by the National Research Committee as an innovation, under the theme “develop in order to improve the countries’ stability and sustainability”.
The Choice simulates the life of 8 debtors in urban and rural communities, which helps players have a better understanding of law, regardless of their background through easy-to-understand language. Due to the game’s playing format, it can be played by a large group in a relaxed, informal atmosphere which helps players have a deeper understanding. While playing, players may consider, brainstorm, analyze and exchange their experiences. The content of the game covers many areas: law in daily life; financial planning, and the principles of sustainable economy. At the end of the game, game leaders will consolidate the ideas learned from the game, with the aim that the players can apply the knowledge and ideas from the game to their real world daily lives.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The goal of the game “The Choice” is to be an empowering instrument for the poorest and most vulnerable of all communities; therefore, the plan is set to introduce the game to the whole country by 2018.
We plan to train our network staffers, including officers in 77 Provincial Justice Offices nationwide, to be a coach or game leader, based on “training the trainers” model. Then, by 2018, officers of all the Provincial Justice Offices will be encouraged to introduce the game to their community volunteers. Moreover, tertiary educational institutions, including 23 universities from all regions, have made "The Choice" the primary activity of their student councils. The councils are directed to engage students in the local ways of life and to introduce the game to the local communities. Besides, a number of primary and secondary educational institutions such as Assumption Convent, St.Louis Suksa, Santa Cruz Convent, St.Joseph Thiphawan have included the game in their curriculum since 2015.
“The Choice” team is working through networks; first by looking for partners with similar missions and by co-operating to increase the numbers of game coaches to launch the game to the target group of our partners’ organization or use it in the form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). “The Choice” initiative is now co-operating with government agencies including Thailand Institute of Justice, Learning Institution for Everyone, Bank for the Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives, and Government Savings Bank.
LADVI has been teaching how to play and apply the lessons of the game, as of now, to 48 groups of people with different age, levels of education and occupations. The groups consist students, monks, teachers, factory workers, Bank of Thailand officers, customers of diverse financial institutions etc. There have been 19,812 people legally educated by the game from 2014 to 2017.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The Choice’s concept comes from the outcome of research of justice policy with the objective to solve loan shark issues and from the polls of debtors who have requested help from the Legal Aid Center for Debtors. It was concluded that an effective and sustainable way to help people is to enhance their understanding about loan shark systems and the adverse effects if they become a debtor of such predatory loan system. To enhance their understanding, an effective and attainable tool is needed to create awareness, to be a medium to target affected groups. To respond to these needs a new tool was innovated.
Beginning in 2014, we cooperated with game designer to create a board game. It began with research, interviewing local communities and urban communities affected with loan shark problems. We collected data and looked for the approach to tackle the issues and needs of those affected. Using this feedback from people, the scope of the game was outlined. The concept design was guided by the research and input, and brainstorming with experts to find an appropriate way to develop the model and named the game, The Choice.
Then, the game was trialed and examined by the target groups such as students, general population, law experts, finance experts and game experts.
To play the game, players must play the role according to the character of the game and lead life successfully and cautiously. Players must also find solutions according to simulated circumstances. During the game, players will have the opportunity to choose the level of investment: less risk or high risk or choose to gamble. Players will accumulate possessions/goods in case of emergency and find out if the simulated situation leads to a good or bad outcome when leading the simulated life. Also, while playing, coaches will give guidance and recommendations. By playing the game, players will learn the knowledge of law and how to plan their life. More than that, it tells them how to reach-out to the government agencies related to the justice system. How to plan your life? How to invest? How to lead life sustainably? Whoever gets a high score according to the goal wins. After the game finished, coaches will let each person explain their lessons from the game. Each game circle will exchange their lessons from the game and coaches will give more guidance/information.
Since 2015, we have had the strategy to continue the sustained spread of this knowledge. We created the network of co-operation with related agencies that dispersed across the community in order to help the poorest and most vulnerable. Agencies included: Provincial Justice Offices, educational institutions, Bank of Thailand, financial institutions, public community network. Also we collect feedback and data, evaluating, designing, and developing the game appropriately.
We emphasize on assisting the poorest and most vulnerable who are currently affected. We are trying to create the mechanism for providing justice, beginning at the community level. We have a system at the community, district, provincial and central level for receiving requests of assistance from the poorest and most vulnerable who get unjustly sentenced. The working process will be aligned with the knowledge building gnostic which is learning by doing.
The government had allocated us a budget to assist and support the poorest and most vulnerable; roughly USD420,000 in 2014, roughly USD500,000 in 2015 and roughly USD305,000 in 2016. Included in the 2014 budget, the amount of roughly USD49,000 was used for creating this innovative game; to collect the data, to train the trainers, to run the tests and to manufacture 2,000 game sets.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The Choice is a game of learning, where players must apply their creativity and positive thinking to figure out the solutions to problems. In the game, we learn about the lives of 8 persons both in urban and rural community who are the poorest and most vulnerable who are experiencing difficulties caused by loan shark. They explain their lives, causes, situations, impacts on their life, and solutions to get out of it in many ways. Also, as part of the game, role players related to solving loan shark problems take part including loan shark officers, police officers, finance officers, and officials from private enterprises.
To ensure the game was realistic and applicable to the target group, experts from areas such as law, economics, finance, society developers, and game developers were involved to improve and develop the game to be more informative, interesting and exciting. The expected participants of the game are students, teens, and the general population. With the input from all these groups to develop the game, it is more complete and satisfying the need of the targeted groups and individuals.
LADVI will use the game to teach the government agencies; provincial justice agencies, justice community help centers, financial institutions, and educational institutions. In turn, these agencies will distribute their knowledge swiftly, efficiently, and sustainably through networks in their community. Moreover, we have co-operated with networks of civil society such as Local Act, a farmer foundation, to be another network to equip people with the knowledge.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The mission of LADVI is to protect and assist the poorest and the most vulnerable in gaining equal access to justice. “The Choice” is therefore an innovative instrument to extensively disperse knowledge all over the country. However, the followings are our priorities that we deem extremely urgent to be rescued by “The Choice.”
First, it’s the group of the poorest and the most vulnerable needing access to justice. These people are incessantly exploited through illegal borrowing contracts, information concealment, fraud, and confiscation of houses and lands. In 2014, the requests for help from the government reached 116 cases, with the amount of money involved of roughly USD 8,600,000. This crisis stimulated us to reach out with comprehensive problem-solving measures by granting support of law and access to the justice system, seeking new sources of funds and helping improve the life standard to those in need. In 2015, 242 farmers from Chon Daen District, Phetchaburi Province fell victims to loan sharks who granted agricultural loans with excessive interest rates. These exploiting creditors filed lawsuits against the farmers to confiscate lands and farming machines. So, we coordinate with law enforcement agencies to bring illegal loan agencies to justice. We also work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives to financially rehabilitate 508 farmers.
Second, it’s the people risking borrowing from loan sharks. To effectively disperse the knowledge from “The Choice,” we have created the network of partners who will help us introduce the game to this target group. The risking people include farmers, company employees, and government officers. We operate by evaluating the questionnaire answers and collecting the empirical data periodically.
We also concentrate on preventive and sustainable problem-solving measures by launching prevention campaigns to groups of high-school and college students, because they are more likely to be peer-pressured into the vicious cycle of loan sharks. So, we need to raise awareness to prevent such incident in the first place. Also, these young adults will be another hand in helping monitor and support their friends and family.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The law itself is a difficult and complicated subject, so we need to make it more accessible and enjoyable. In the early stages, when we put the game into practice, we found that the design of the game was not interesting. Then, we increased the numbers of the situation cards and made them more realistic. To get out of the difficulties they encounter in the game, they need to use the cards that they already purchased. The situation cards are another way to teach the rule of law as well.
The coach needs a skill to clearly explain the rules of the game, so the coach needs to have a wide knowledge regarding law, finance, and sustainable life development. We also have experts within our networks who participate in the teaching and explanations. Some explanations are best done by cartoons explaining law, or info graphics relating to selling on consignment, mortgage, hire-purchase, borrowing and repaying loans, and introducing justice facility agencies.
The game can be tailored to different target groups and how to approach them, for example, loan shark concerning capital, case procedure, awareness of thought and behavior. Then we can build the network of co-operation with related agencies to solve the problem.
The content of the game concerning borrowing which contradicts with the teaching of the Islamic religion must be adjusted too.
People of different ages pay attention to the game to different degrees. Therefore, we need a strategy to help these people including students and teenagers, through the conventional education system. We will implement a gaming competition element to the game involving scores and competitions between groups of students. It is expected to begin in 2018.
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