Maryam Nusrat Adil, a Pakistani education specialist, and entrepreneur joined the ranks of Forbes Pakistan’s honorees last week, making it to the Forbes Next 1000 list for using the “power of video games to educate, engage and empower people”.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – June 25, 2021 – Diplomatic Affairs
The list celebrates small startups with less than $10 million in income or funding, such as Adil’s Gaming Revolution for International Development (GRID).
“I feel very grateful and humbled to be on the Forbes list,” Adel said in a phone interview.
“Moments like these are a testament to the passion, purpose, and perseverance that my team and I at GRID put in, but they are also the perfect refueling stations along the entrepreneurial journey,” said the founder
“It is time to stop and celebrate the win, then return to our mission with renewed commitment and conviction. This is just the beginning, and we are thrilled with the possibilities of our journey.”
Primarily run by a team of game developers and designers in Pakistan, GRID creates low-cost mobile games that inspire positive behavior change. The company raised $75,000 in seed funding from 11 Tribes Ventures and backed by Ocean Accelerator.
In nearly seven years, the company has created games to educate people about reproductive health, climate change, epidemics, animal care, and STEM learning.
It has several new games in the pipeline that seeks to raise awareness about child abuse, financial literacy, and future skills. Under its nonprofit arm, the organization has developed eight games in four languages.
“Having grown up playing games like SimCity, I knew that games leave an impression in our brains that goes beyond the limits of the virtual world,” Adel said.
“I wondered to myself that if games about city-building can teach urban planning, can games that focus on environmental awareness promote climate action, or those about women’s rights advance equality, or those that build humane education that improves animal welfare?
Adel said she aspires to develop “meaningful” video games.
“These are video games with a purpose beyond entertainment,” she said. “They have tremendous potential to influence industries like education, marketing, and training, although we don’t see them integrated into these industries.”
GRID is also planning to release a program called Breshna, which will allow people to create games without any coding experience at “lightning speeds.” The word “Brishna” means lightning in Pashto, the mother tongue of Adil.
“Prishtina enables anyone, even without programming or design experience, to create their own video games for educational, marketing, and training purposes,” she said. “Whether it’s a teacher doing a history test, a non-profit leader making a handbook on animal empathy, or a founder making a presentation, they can all leverage Breshna to create fun, interactive video games to engage their audience.”
In addition to GRID, Adel has also worked for the World Bank since 2010, focusing on education. Her career has led her across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. She holds a master’s degree in economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan and George Washington University in the United States.
Adel is originally from Islamabad and currently lives in the United States, although she aspires to return to her homeland.
“Pushing it forward is something deeply ingrained in the DNA of our organization, and I owe a large part of my journey and success to my country,” Adel said.
“I want GRID to prove that Pakistan is rich in development and design talent. Global technology companies have the opportunity to capitalize on this high-quality talent and develop innovative solutions in a capital-efficient manner.”
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Source: Ukrgate
