A Bolton-based educational-technology company has helped deliver an interactive learning project to support the humanitarian response to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

The project – delivered by New-Life in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy - is designed to promote a grounding in humanitarian access and principles for the NRC’s agency partners on the ground in Romania.

Humanitarian Access & Principles - course trailer from Near-Life on Vimeo.

As one of the largest global humanitarian agencies supporting refugees, the Norwegian Refugee Council has been at the forefront of the response to the Ukrainian crisis.

Utilising a mixture of interactive video, decision-based scenarios, documentary-style films and written content and quizzes, the course is being made available for free on the Humanitarian Leadership Academy’s Kaya platform.

Providing humanitarian assistance can be a challenging task as humanitarian organizations often work in complex environments.

The immersive learning scenarios, built using Near-Life’s interactive video authoring tool, are designed to support experiential learning - giving learners an opportunity to experience some of the most common situations faced around humanitarian access and principles. 

The Bolton News: Destruction of a residential building in Kyiv, 18.03.2022. Credit: Алесь УсцінаўDestruction of a residential building in Kyiv, 18.03.2022. Credit: Алесь Усцінаў

Near-Life co-founder Geseth Garcia said: “We are very proud to have been able to support the work of NRC over a number of years.

As one of the early adopters of our immersive learning technology, they understand the value of branching scenarios and interactive video for education.

We’ve been delighted to work on this new project with the NRC team, which will hopefully support the humanitarian efforts underway during this incredibly difficult time.”

Carlo Gherardi, NRC’s regional director for Central and Eastern Europe, said: “Our response to the Ukrainian crisis has been a major undertaking and has involved working with a number of local partners in Ukraine, Romania, Poland and the Republic of Moldova.

“This project will help give our colleagues who are new to humanitarian response an effective grounding in some of the core principles around humanitarian access.”

The Bolton News: Ukrainian Refugees on Lviv Railway Station during Russian War. Credit: r_руслан литвинUkrainian Refugees on Lviv Railway Station during Russian War. Credit: r_руслан литвин

The course, initially available in Romanian can be accessed for free here.

Near-Life is a learning technologies company based on Great Moor Street that supports content creators with an easy-to-use platform to produce interactive video, VR and gamified content easily.

The company also partners with organisations to deliver strategic content projects. 

The NRC is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement.

This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict, human rights violations and acute violence, as well as climate change and natural disasters.