21 April 2023 – Gamers across Australia and the world are uniting in support of the children and families impacted by the Ukraine war, in a fundraising first for UNICEF Australia.
UNICEF Australia’s Gamers4Action campaign allows the community and private sector to come together to raise critical funds to directly help children and families affected by emergencies, by gaming, streaming, or watching others play their favourite games. More than 20 creators and 10 streaming live from Ukraine have already joined, donating their skills and time to the campaign.
And for the first time, tech giants Atlassian, Canva, Salesforce and Telstra Foundation will go head-to-head to be the last team standing in the battle royale obstacle course game, Fall Guys. Funds raised will go towards UNICEF Australia’s Ukraine Appeal. For those not competing, it will be streamed live on www.twitch.tv/atlassianlive on Friday, April 28 at 3pm AEST.
Innovation Lead at UNICEF Australia, Zunilka C. Whitnall said, “Gamers4Action was built by gamers, for gamers. We’ve seen time and time again that when you play with purpose, people literally have the power to change the world and, in our case, it’s the world of a child in an emergency.
“Whether it’s Ukraine, Syria or a crisis in Australia, we want the gaming community to feel that they can take this platform, make it their own, and drive real impact.”
Now in its second year of war, Ukraine’s 7.8 million children continue to suffer the deadly and long-term consequences of this conflict with the loss of education and friends and family members. Donations from the tournament will enable UNICEF to provide, sustain and expand critical services in health, nutrition, child protection, gender-based violence, WASH and social protection alongside government relief and recovery efforts.
"As we know gaming has no borders, it’s incredible to see that for our first campaign the generous support of the community in Australia has been joined by creators in Ukraine, who are participating to help their country,” Zunilka C. Whitnall said.
The campaign, developed by HeadJam and GGWP Academy, launched on April 1 and the Ukraine Emergency fundraising event will run until the end of May.