In many countries, such as the State of Palestine, electricity can be spotty or even off for many hours every day, so it’s common to use candles or gas heaters for light and heat — and it’s also common for fires to break out. To help teach people how to put out different types of fires in their homes, a group of girls from Palestine invented an application that helps people learn how to put out and prevent fires.

They created “Be A Firefighter,” a virtual reality game that provides a creative way to educate players on how to safely interact with fire. Players experience a fire, and then they can take action to prevent the fire or extinguish an existing fire. Out of 12 finalists at this year’s Technovation event — which invites teams of girls from all over the world to learn and apply the skills needed to solve real-world problems through technology — Team TMWZ won the Senior Silver Scholarship award for their app, as well as the People’s Choice Award.

“’Be a Firefighter’  … provides awareness and entertainment to let users be more aware about the fire situation and be able to extinguish it and prevent fires from happening,” said Yamama Shakaa, the mentor for Team TMWZ.

Shakaa, as well as the members of Team TMWZ — Tamara Awaisa, Wasan Al-Sayed, Zubaida Al-Sadder and Masa Halawa (pictured) — spoke with Sonia Tagare, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Technovation event in Santa Clara, California. They discussed how they devised the game, as well as how they they would like it to grow in the future.

Making change in their own way

The girls originally found out about the Technovation event from their teachers at school. When a civil defense representative came and spoke to the girls’ class about the danger of fire accidents, they decided to create an app that would help with fire control and also be the perfect project for Technovation.

While people of any age can play “Be a Firefighter,” it’s mainly focused for those 10 to 18 years old. The girls took a poll at their school of how many of their schoolmates read brochures about putting out fires; 70 percent said that they do not. That prompted them to think of how they could offer a fun teaching moment via an app.

If the team gets funding for the app, the members would like to eventually have the app available on the Web and make it available for all ages, maybe as a game on social media. Eventually, they would also like to have a laptop version that could be used by hospitals and other organizations.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s editorial coverage of the Technovation event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE