WELLCOME TRUST

ANTI:VENOM AWARENESS

Treatments for snakebites already exist, yet the human toll remains one of the world’s biggest hidden health crises. Snakebites cause over 100,000 deaths every year and leave another 400,000 with life‑changing disabilities, mostly in the poorest communities where access to anti‑venoms is limited.

To raise awareness, a familiar board game was reimagined as Snakebites & Ladders, spotlighting the critical challenges in tackling snakebite envenoming.

As players move through the board, they encounter the barriers millions face in accessing treatment, while also charting the progress needed in investment and coordinated action — because nobody should be dying from a snakebite.

Launched at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the game was supported by large‑scale snake sculptures that appeared overnight in Parc Mon Repos. Each represented a species from regions most affected by envenoming, including a Russell’s Viper crafted from survivor stories and a Cobra built from discarded flip‑flops. A takeover of the park’s signage highlighted the crisis, turning a quiet Geneva green space into an unmissable statement about a threat hiding, for many, in plain sight.