Minecraft project spurs former child refugee to help find solutions for Calgary's less fortunate

Bashir Ayanee loves Minecraft, so could not contain his excitement when he learned of a school project that would capitalize on his expertise while hopefully one day helping others.

"Amazing," said the Grade 5 student from the Bowcroft School in northwest Calgary.

"No one had to teach me. I am a big fan of the game."

Minecraft is a massively popular video game where players can gather or mine building materials and create a world to live and play in.

That creative element made it a great project for Calgary students to help build the future of the city's downtown core after it's been devastated by record-high vacancy rates due, in part, to a struggling oil and gas industry and a reduced need for physical office space.

Designing downtown for the future

The city, the public school board and the video game makers partnered just weeks ago to invite ideas of how to repurpose Calgary's core.

"In my classroom we talked about what is in the downtown core and what the kids would like to see there," Dan Pye, one of Ayanee's teachers, told the Calgary Eyeopener.

"Then we turned them loose in the Minecraft world to see what they could create."

• 2016 | Threats from the Taliban forced family to flee

Ayanee's idea is centred in supporting people with limited incomes and experiencing housing insecurity.

"At the start we were going to build a thrift store that has free food and free water in it," Ayanee explained.

"My mom — back in my home country — she couldn't afford things, so I decided to build this so no one else would have to feel like that."

Helping homeless Calgarians a theme

Ayanee's family fled war torn Afghanistan arriving in Calgary in 2013 just before the big floods.

Today, the smiling 10-year-old can't wait to help others with challenges his family faced.

And helping the less fortunate was an idea that picked up steam at Bowcroft School, Pye said.

"We had quite a few prototypes arranged around homelessness and Calgarians who maybe can't afford some of the amenities we have in the city," Pye said.

"We had a lot of sports complexes, basketball and volleyball courts, schools, leisure centres. One student built a beautiful fountain, and another student built a reading nook out of actual trees."

City to see top designs

That engagement is music to the ears of Jason Cameron, the city's project lead.

"We know that the downtown is the heart of our vibrancy and economic resilience but we also know engaging young people and having them see themselves as part of the future of this city is really important too," Cameron told CBC News in an interview.

"I am really confident the ideas will be heard by the project leads, and we will find a way to honour the commitment and effort these kids have put in. When you spend 20 hours on a design how can you not fall in love with your city and with playing an important role in shaping that, whether you are in Grade 5 or in university or Bow Valley College or SAIT?"

Pye says the project ticks all the academic boxes, too.

"It gives them an authentic way to create, to practice collaboration skills, and critical-thinking skills. It ties it back into community, a sense of being able to shape the future. We want every kid to feel that."

The projects, including the work of about 12,000 students, will be shortlisted by hundreds of teachers and then a panel will further narrow the submissions in February. Once four have been selected, they will be compared with existing infrastructure programs to determine if integration is possible.

"As much as it is infrastructure, it's also this community ecosystem of sharing ideas and a love for this city," Cameron added.