Inappropriate games / activities
Introduction
As a result of many concerns expressed by various nations during the last few years, the International Village Committee sees a need to consider different aspects of certain activities and games which might cause serious conflict in a Village.
It is not our purpose to prepare a "BLACK LIST" however, we do ask that you are carefully consider the cultural perspectives of the games we have listed.
WE hope the following list will assist you in choosing games and activities that are culturally sensitive to all participants in a Village and help you to evaluate others not listed herein.
1. NEWSPAPER GAME
The newspaper game is known in CISV as a namegame.
The participants are sitting in a circle and one person is standing in the middle holding a newspaperroll. Somebody is calling a name of a participant and the person in the middle has to run there and hit the named person on the head. If the named person calls another name before being hidden on, the one in the middle has to run to the new one. The game continues until the person in the middle is successful at hitting someone before they can yell out a name, at which point the two players switch position and the game begins again.
The concerns about this game are:
* violent-type game (the players can easily be hurt)
* cultural insensitive (in some cultures it is very unpleasant or not allowed to touch the head of another person)
2. CLOTHESLINE
Participants are divided into two evenly numbered teams. This is a competition to see which team can make longer clothesline on the ground using only the participants and the various clothes on their bodies.
The concerns about this game are:
* embarrassing-type game
* cultural insensitive (it is not common in every culture to get undressed in front of other people)
* competition (the pressure on a single child can get very strong in such a situation, so that he/she get undressed for the team, but is very embarrassed and hurt)
3. BLANKET GAME / SAHARA GAME / DESERT GAME
One participant is sitting in the middle and is covered by a blanket. Then he is told by the others that he should imagine that he is in the desert and that it is very hot. So what should he do to feel better in that situation?!
Normally the participants starts to take off their clothes. The game is over if they throw the blanket away, cause they throw the desert away. But most of the times the participant does not know the game and takes off cloth first instead of throwing the blanket first.
The concerns about this game are:
* embarrassing-type game
* cultural insensitive
4. FOOD GAMES
Shouldn't be played because food is something we all need and we still have millions of people every year dying cause they have not enough food. So instead playing those games we should try to make our kids aware of the meaning food has in this world.
5. FIRE DRILL
In most of the camps the fire brigade of the town is coming to show the camp participants what to do in an emergency case. At the end of their explanations they often turn the water on and everybody has fun with the water game. This is a nice way to end up with the serious thing they told you before, but after the fun you should come back to the main facts and talk to your children again about the importance of the fire frill and if they understood what they have to do in an emergency case.
6. SIMULATION GAMES
Rich & poor game, system-game, lifeboat, tug of the war etc. are very interesting games if they are prepared well, done in a good way and if there is a good evaluation at the end of the game.
In those activities the participants are playing a certain role within the group and they should be able to handle this role.
This is quite hard for a child of the age of eleven for many reasons and it is not possible to have a real good evaluation at the end of the game with the hole group cause of the language problem. Those game are normally played in summer or in seminar camps, but shouldn't be played in Villages.
7. KISSING GAMES
IN every Village we have kissing games, but is not quite common in every culture to kiss a person just for fun, so often have a lot of problems with those games.
We can't talk about all kissing games here, but everybody should be aware of the meaning of a kiss in other cultures and how children might feel in those situations. And why does it have to be a kiss, it could also be a hug or just a smile.
The concerns about this game are:
* cultural insensitive
* embarrassing for some participants
Example: RAPE GAME / SUMO SEX GAME
The boys are sitting in a circle and all of them get a number like 1, 2, 3,.... and the girls are sitting in the same circle and get letters like A, B, C, .... One participant is sitting in the middle and he/she has to call out a number and a letter. Then a boy and a girl run into the middle and if there is a boy sitting there already the girl which was called has to try to kiss him, but the boy which was also called has to try to kiss this girl before. So normally a big fight starts in the middle of this circle.
The concerns about this game are:
* violent game
* a game with those names is not funny at all and shouldn't be part of our activities
* embarrassing type
* cultural insensitive
8. WEDDING GAME / MARRIAGE CEREMONY
At the end of a camp we often have a lot of couples in the group, so it often happens that there is a wedding night with a ceremony and a party. But not everybody has a boy or a girlfriend, so sometimes they are not taking part or couples are just made up. And often nobody realizes that not everybody feels comfortable in that situation for different reasons.
But again there is a cultural reason we all should be aware off, a wedding in most cultures is a promise, it is a holy relic and a very serious matter.
The concerns about this game are:
* cultural sensitivity
* not everybody can take part
9. LOVE STATUE
Some participants are outside the room and the others are sitting inside as an audience. One person is calling two participants inside and starts to build the statue of love then another person is added and they go on building the statue of love.
This is quite fun for the audience, but not always for the people in the statue, cause they are forced to do things which they might don't like at all.
The concerns about this game are:
* cultural insensitive
* embarrassing type
* group pressure
10. CROSSDRESSING
We are always looking fro themes if we have parties at night in a Village. A favorite one is the crossdressing when girls look like boys and boys look like girls.
The concerns about this game are:
* cultural insensitive
* embarrassing type
11. SECRET FRIEND
Every participant in the Village is taking a paper whit the name of another participant and then he/she is the secret friend of this person. That means that he/she has to do nice things for their secret friend for some days and at the end of the game there is a song and everybody is taking his secret friend.
This activity is a quite smart one, but just if everybody has got the idea and is taking part of it. Otherwise there are always kids which never get a note or something else from their monito and they feel lost.
So if this activity is played in a camp the leaders should take care that it works, otherwise it is not a nice activity for everyone.
12. CHILDREN'S PARLIAMENT / CAMPMEETING
This is a meeting where the children can take the chance to talk about their wishes and what they would like to change in their camp. Therefore they take a chairperson out of their group and a secretary. The leaders are just there for listening and translations.
Those meetings are very interesting and they can be great help for the leaders and the hole camp. But again they have to be prepared very well and the children should know before there are certain things in a camp which can't be changed (bedtimes, freetime all day long, food etc.). They should know which things can easily be changed and which are real part of normal camplife.
After the meeting there should be another meeting where the leaders and staff talk to the children about their wishes and what they can do about it and explain the reason why.
If a campmeeting is not handled in such a way the children get the feeling that this was a stupid activity and that nobody care of their problems.
13 PRACTICAL JOKES
Practical jokes are most of the time very rude things which are done with one person and the others are having fun. But most of the times it is not funny for the person they play the joke with. Again it is not very sensitive to d things you wouldn't like for your own whit other people and it can be very embarrassing for the person you are playing the joke on.
14. DRINKING GAMES
Drinking games shouldn't be played in a Village or any other CISV activity.
It's OK in some countries that leaders can drink a beer or a glass of wine at night when the children are in bed, in other countries it is not allowed at all to drink alcohol in the camp. But still we always should have in mind that we have the responsibility for our children and we can't get drunk in that case.
Nobody should be forced to drink alcohol to be part of the game.
The concerns about this game are:
* dangerous game
* cultural insensitive
* not everybody can play (age, religion.....)
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