We are very proud to be sponsoring the Butterfly Project! The Butterfly Project is an amazing Children’s Charity which raises money for children in Uganda. These amazing folks supply them with not only the essentials but help heal and inspire them through role-playing games!
And even better news, Con+2 is running a 24 hour Marathon stream to raise money for charity! This also means that you’ll be able to PLAY Tabletop RPG games WHILST helping charity. There’s also a GIANT BUTT-TONNE OF EPIC PRIZES to be won. Oh, yeah – we got your back, guys! This is the good stuff!
Play Games, Win Loot AND Help a Children’s Charity!
You can catch the stream right here starting on Saturday 12th October at 5PT | 13 BST and finishing 24 hours later! There’s a tonne of events and games going on from Friday 11th, including seats available at one-shot TTRPGS like Pathfinder, Starfinder, the Alien RPG and Original DnD, as well as panels and talks! Check out the full list right here!
You can also WIN PRIZES! Check out all this loot from the sponsors – and yeah, we’re on there too!
The Butterfly Project
Children in the poorest places of our planet rarely have the global awareness to think about change, whether it be changing their own lives or changing the world around them. It’s not just about a lack of opportunities and too few positive role models, they’re living in a society that lacks sufficient policing of crime, often allowing gang violence to go uncontested. All around them many women are forced to submit to men, girls married off as teenagers for their dowries. The weak and disabled, children included, are treated without respect in a society that can serve them a cocktail of violence, neglect and subjugation, both in their schools and communities.
Dangerous slums and remote rural villages are neglected by most fund raisers and NGOs. Overlooked and forgotten these children are often discouraged to think about change, they naturally follow in the same footsteps of those around them, committed to continuing a cycle of stagnation, decay and social neglect.
But children everywhere can think about change, if given the tools to do so. The Butterfly Project aims to provide those tools. By using board games and role-playing games as a core part of their tool set they’ve already made change makers out of dozens of children in Uganda.
Learn more about the daily actions of the Butterly Project!
Giving Children The Tools
The process starts by locating the most selfless children in the most disadvantaged parts of Uganda that are interested in improving their communities. They live and work at a centre operated by The Butterfly Project, and whilst there they are trained to develop their vision, ethics, self-confidence, and leadership skills. Empathy is encouraged initially through specific local community action projects organised by The Butterfly Project, but then the children are invited to run their own projects to impact on nearby slum communities. The resources of the centre include DVDs, music, computers, sports equipment, games, film, video equipment, books, art and learning materials and even carpentry tools.
Through the years though the project has found that board games are a superb mechanism for teaching children useful basic skills, and role-playing games help the children to imagine a better future for them and their communities. Specialist ICT, social media, marketing and communication training is then taught in co-operation with local and international mentors and the children encouraged to create social entrepreneur programmes to fund an eventual placement at university. The Butterfly Project is developing a fund to support each child’s business and even helping the children to design publishable boardgames so that they can self-finance their ultimate progression.
What can you do?
Tune in to the Con+2 Marathon Stream, to get involved! Or go to their website to learn more!
Here you can see some of the children the Butterfly Project has supported, as well as a bunch of their fans and sponsors!
If that’s got you inspired and you can’t wait for your oneshot, go create your character concept at World Anvil using our incredible character profiles!
Gonna tune in? Let us know in the comments below!
