IPB University Alumni Develop Innovative Board Game ‘Buddy Pekerti’ to Prevent Bullying

IPB University alumni Apriyani Supriatna, Risky Sherly Putri, and Abdul Aziz, a team from Ruber Innovation Lab, have developed an educational board game to prevent bullying among students called ‘Buddy Pekerti’. 

This innovation originated from concerns about bullying cases that are rampant among Indonesian students. As many as 41.1 percent of students in Indonesia have experienced bullying according to the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) research.

‘Buddy’ which means ‘Friend’ became the basic concept in the development of the Buddy Pekerti board game. Buddy Pekerti is specifically designed to provide a new perspective to understand each other through design thinking and coaching methods. 

“It feels great to be involved and create a creative learning media to educate students in preventing bullying. Especially in the process of creating Buddy Pekerti, we used a design thinking approach that was quite long, from understanding user segmentation with empathy, defining problems, prototyping, testing until we found the right game format for Buddy Pekerti,” said Apriyani, one of the creators of Buddy Pekerti Board Game. 

Interestingly, she revealed, Buddy Pekerti is not just ordinary educational games but is packed with the appropriate theory in understanding the reality that occurs in adolescents. According to Erik Erikson in his Psychosocial theory, 12-18 years old (adolescents) enter the Identity vs Role Confusion stage, which is when a person seeks self-identity by developing their beliefs, goals, and values. 

“This condition makes Buddy Pekerti invite participants to respond to the reality of bullying through interactive experiences that emphasize self-confidence, empathy, and a growth mindset in each stage of the game,” she said.

More than 3.563 students from various schools, communities and learning centers in Jabodetabek and West Java have been the beneficiaries of this activity. They were given the opportunity to actively engage in the game and feel the positive impact of the interactions made. 

This initiative also brings the #1MillionYouthsStopBullying campaign, a campaign that aims to mobilize one million youths in an effort to prevent bullying. This campaign is expected to expand the reach and impact of the Buddy Pekerti board game, so that more students are aware of the importance of creating a safe and supportive environment for their friends.

“With Buddy Pekerti Board Game, it makes me really feel confident, understand others, have strong empathy, and understand what my friends feel and think without us asking or making them uncomfortable”, Sabna Humaira, one of the participants of #1MillionYouthsStopBullying movement from SMKN 62 Jakarta.

In addition to continuing to visit schools, in early August, the Ruber Innovation Lab team had the opportunity to present how schools can act as ‘Zero Bullying Schools’ by strengthening their commitment to building better student character through the Learning Raya by SMSG Education Festival class. 

“With this success, it is hoped that Buddy Pekerti can continue to be developed and introduced to more schools and communities across Indonesia, so that the mission to create a caring and empathetic young generation can be achieved,” Apriyani hoped. (IAAS/ZQA)