Children use Minecraft to stay in touch across a continent

A group of elementary school children in Berkeley, Cali. are using Minecraft to stay in touch with a friend who was deported from the country earlier this year, reports The LA Times.

Friends of 10-year-old Rodrigo Guzman collected 2,788 signatures in an online petition and set up Facebook and YouTube pages for their "Bring Rodrigo Home" campaign, as well as met with state representatives and wrote to President Obama. After their efforts failed to gain traction and they were told the U.S.'s immigration system would not move quickly to their cause, the children came up with a different way to keep in touch with their friend.

Twins Kyle and Scott Kuwahara decided they should build a world in Mojang's Minecraft, "Rodrigo's World," in which they could continue to play with their deported friend.

"We just wanted to be able to hang out somewhere with Rodrigo where none of this other stuff mattered," Scott told The LA Times. "The more we learn about immigration, the more unfair it seems."

"Rodrigo's World" launched over this past weekend. Participating families chipped in to rent their own Minecraft server for the private play space they had set up. The children spent last Saturday night in an Internet cafe, playing Minecraft with their friend in Mexico and chatting with him through Skype.

"I want to say thank you for this, because it's helping me," Rodrigo told the Times. "But I still hope to come back and see everyone again."

Read the full, heartwarming story of how Minecraft is keeping these children in touch here.