UN director creates a virtual reality documentary to highlight humanitarian tragedies

United Nations Creative Director Gabo Arora wants to make people, including key decision-makers at the U.N. General Assembly, feel and see pressing humanitarian issues such as the Ebola outbreak and the Syrian refugee crisis through virtual reality storytelling.

Started in early 2015, United Nations Virtual Reality (UNVR) was created to fund-raise and impact peace building. The app, backed by UNVR’s offices in 150 countries, aims to make real humanitarian tragedies virtual.

The UN’s virtual reality lab has made people feel a “greater empathic response” through films. UNVR showed “My Mother’s Wing” in the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, to raise awareness about the aftermath of the wars in Palestine.

UNVR’s next project is the virtual reality of climate change refugees. Arora told CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” that “the refugees [issue] we have now is nothing compared to what we will have with climate change.”

Source: CNBC