From gameplay to civic awareness: the Migration Escape Game

It all began in 2019, in the hallways of the Collège et Ecole de commerce (CEC) Émilie‑Gourd in Geneva. Inspired by geography teacher David Pillonel, a group of around twenty motivated students came together to design an educational Escape Game on migration. They developed it as a concrete upper‑secondary project for the edition of the Competition “Take Action for Peace!”, which invited students to reflect on Sustainable Development Goal no. 16 and its call to promote just, peaceful, and inclusive societies. Their vision was to create an immersive experience that would help participants better understand the complexity of migration journeys, asylum policies, and the human realities behind the numbers and statistics we so often encounter.

A living and evolving project

Thanks to the support of the Françoise Demole Award in 2020, during its launch year within the Eduki Competition, the project was able to take shape, acquire equipment, and—above all—become sustainable. Five years later, it is still fully booked: more than 50 sessions per year, media coverage, and above all, generations of students who have themselves become Game Masters, ready to pass on the torch. Who would have imagined that it would also become a team‑building space for UNHCR, SOS Méditerranée and various other associations working with migrant communities (sometimes even coming from France), as well as the Geneva Council of State? And all of this continues to be entirely run by upper‑secondary students.

The project is now well‑established, offering participants a unique experience that helps them understand the human, social, and political dimensions of migration while strengthening their project‑management skills. Yet this does not mean the Escape Game has stopped evolving since it was presented as an Award laureate. It has gone through numerous phases of development and improvement, and continues to expand thanks to the voluntary commitment of students, alumni, and teachers. Each year, new students join the team and take up the work of their predecessors, enriching the puzzles (such as creating a Ukrainian profile), building new settings, refining the narrative, and developing their acting or video‑production skills according to their interests.

Today, this collective adventure has even taken shape as an association governed by Articles 60 and following of the Swiss Civil Code, contributing not only to ensuring its continuity, but also to strengthening the skills acquired by the involved students. This project, born from a simple yet bold idea, shows that it is not necessary to plan everything from the start: the essential thing is to begin, experiment, and build the right team around you.

“The Françoise Demole Award allowed us to transform an idea into reality. Without it, we could not have gone this far, nor involved so many students.”
— David Pillonel, teacher at CEC Émilie‑Gourd and escape‑game creator

A project that continues to inspire teachers, students, policymakers… and the entire Eduki team

Convinced by its impact, several teachers have already taken the step with their own classes, many of them consulting David for guidance. And you—would you be ready to engage in such a project?

A pedagogical guide and a presentation are made available to you free of charge (in French). A detailed article with practical information for teachers was also recently published on the Éducation 21 website.