Gamifying Gadaa: Indigenous knowledge meets real trees
I grew up in a remote Ethiopian village where environmental degradation and climate‑induced droughts are eroding our soil. As the land degrades, young people migrate to cities, leaving our ecosystems vulnerable, while a lack of infrastructure turns small resource disputes into localized conflicts.
I once dreamed of NASA, of rockets and stars. But after university, life took a sharp turn. My brother was tragically killed, leaving his children fatherless. As their uncle, I tried to support them but lacked the means, eventually experiencing homelessness on the streets of Addis Ababa while searching for manual labor.
That survival reality is exactly where this project was born.
What I built: a prototype for Gadaa experts
Using free online resources, I taught myself to code on borrowed mobile phones. I built a Telegram bot that teaches the Oromo Gadaa system – a 500‑year‑old democratic governance structure recognized by UNESCO.
Players navigate Gadaa’s seven age‑grades, from Dabballee (learner) to Yuuba (elder), while learning about the Haadha Siinqee – women who possess the constitutional authority to mediate and halt land conflicts. Every correct answer earns points, and those points are converted into real trees planted on degraded hillsides.
The game is a functional prototype. I am currently presenting it to Gadaa elders, climate scientists, and Ethiopian universities to refine its pedagogical and ecological accuracy.
Impact so far
With zero funding and no formal team, I hand‑cleared a 1,500‑meter roadside pilot plot with a shovel and planted the first line of trees. Today, a small but highly engaged Telegram community is forming, and our digital waiting list is growing daily.
This grassroots model has already been submitted as a case study for the UN SDG Action Awards, demonstrating how digital civic tools can scale indigenous knowledge.
Join the waiting list
Why this matters for DRR
Traditional disaster risk reduction heavily favors top‑down infrastructure and early warning systems, frequently leaving remote, rural communities behind.
This platform bridges cultural identity with Ecosystem‑based Disaster Risk Reduction (Eco‑DRR). In the future, we intend for players to design practical landscape interventions – such as erosion barriers, check‑dams, and agricultural terraces – earning rewards for applying traditional disaster wisdom.
When youth see their cultural heritage utilized as a tool for modern survival, they become the primary protectors of the landscape.
Takeaway: from a remote village to the world
We cannot allow global climate policies to gather in centralized smart cities while forgetting the remote valleys where risks are highest. We need localized resilience that scales.
If a homeless graduate can code a system that puts real roots in the ground, imagine what an entire generation can achieve when given a digital stake in their own climate future.
Israel Tolessa Hinkossa holds a Bachelor of Statistics from Debre Berhan University (Ethiopia). After homelessness and family tragedy, he taught himself to code and built Gadaa Eco Builder – a game that turns indigenous Gadaa knowledge into real tree planting. He has completed certificates from the UNDP (OECM course), UNESCO/CABES, the Ghana Climate Literacy Portal, and Big 5 Construct Ethiopia.