The Googaz initiative brings the SDGs close to more than 560 young people of Bizkaia

In its fifth edition, Googaz has brought the challenges of Agenda 2030 and the SDGs closer to 566 youngsters of Bizkaia. Googaz, an initiative promoted by BBK Kuna, the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, Virtualware and Stay Bigel, is “a movement created by nonconformist millennials who seek to motivate the youth of the Basque Country into action and be the owners of their lives”.

On this occasion, with virtual reality as an ally and using virtual reality glasses, young people aged 16 to 30 (87.5% of the participants are aged 16 to 18) have been able to live experiences that have brought them in an immersive and participative way closer to the reality of refugees and those people who suffer anxiety, poverty or gender violence.

El 75% of the participants confirmed to know nothing about the SDGs before participating in this experience; 84% consider the SDGs and Agenda 2030 to be very important and 95% state that, after participating in this experience, they feel much closer to the SDGs and more involved in the realities they have been able to experience with Googaz.

In this edition, the focus has been on five SDGs: End poverty (SDG 1), Gender equality (SDG 5), Good health and well-being (SDG 3), Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) and Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11). The first three were the SDGs which have most interested those who participated in Googaz 5.0.

Thus, Googaz has concluded the first part of this edition and now, launches the second. On Saturday 17 June, BBK Kuna, the Home of the SDGs, will host a Hackathon with the participation of 40 residents from the localities participating in this edition.

This Hackathon will work on a challenge focussed on the SDGs by designing a script for a virtual reality game in teams. The winning team will win a pair of virtual reality glasses for each member.

The winning team will create the script which, through the support of vocational training centres, will be used as a starting point to create and design the game that Googaz will then take to the towns of Bizkaia in 2024.