In an emergency, people need to dial triple zero (000) but for many of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s (DIAC) clients, that can sometimes be a challenge.

It’s an especially difficult concept for children to understand if they have come from a country with a different emergency number, or a country that simply did not have a number, or infrastructure, to call in an emergency.

An online game for primary aged school children, designed to educate and promote the ‘000’ emergency number, was launched nationally this week by Australia’s frontline state and territory emergency services. The game, Triple Zero Kids Challenge, provides basic instructions and requires the player to complete simple tasks in order to complete levels. While entertaining, the game is also educational with strong messages on how and when to use the ‘000’ emergency number.

“The game was produced in English and then needed to be reproduced in other languages, including Hindi, Thai, Arabic, Chinese, Dari and Vietnamese,” a DIAC spokesman said. “Immigration provided access to the department’s recording studios, and a number of Canberra families from non-English speaking backgrounds provided their services as voice talent.'

DIAC provided in-kind production support in partnership with the New South Wales Fire Brigades Culturally Diverse Services team and the National Triple Zero Awareness Work Group.

“We work closely with a wide number of services, including police, ambulance and fire, through migrant English programs and community services,” the spokesman said.

“Canberra has a deeply rich culturally diverse community, passionate about playing a role in community safety and education. With non-English speaking voice talent available in Canberra, it was a simple case for our producers to bring in families to record their voices.”

Each in-language game has about 2000 individual voice files that needed to be recorded and matched to the English version. DIAC’s broadcast production team spent three weeks compiling the voice files and making them ready to include in the final product.

“Triple zero is an essential number to know in an emergency and you are never too young – or old – to learn how to use it properly,” the spokesman said. “DIAC plays a key role in educating non-English speaking new arrivals to Australia. A part of that education process is teaching new arrivals there is help available in an emergency and that triple zero is the number to call,” he added.

Check out the video clip on the ImmiTV Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/immitv