An ambitious international program is challenging Australian school children to help change one billion lives in one week. Youna Angevin-Castro speaks to Chantelle Baxter of Project Eight to find out how.

Design For Change is a worldwide competition aimed at motivating young children across the globe to become drivers of change within their local communities. The brainchild of Kiran Bir Sethi, the founder of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India, the competition was first launched in India in 2009. Successfully reaching students from 32,000 schools across India, the program attracted global interest, and in 2010 the competition is being held worldwide.

Chantelle Baxter, co-founder of Project Eight, the organisation behind Design for Change Australia, decided to become involved after viewing a video presentation by Kiran Bir Sethi on TED.com.

“We were amazed at the results Design for Change had produced in India. Within the period of a week there were groups of children who had stopped 16 child marriages, raised awareness of alcoholism and taught their parents how to read and write. We’d never heard of a program that created results like this in such a short period of time,” explains Baxter.

”[So] we contacted Kiran and asked what it would take to run the program in Australia.”

The basic premise of the project is to ask children and young people across the globe to respond to a single challenge – one week to change one billion lives.

“Over the course of one week, children are asked to identify a problem in their community, come up with a solution to that problem and then implement their solution. By following a simple process (Feel, Imagine, Do, Share), students create their own community projects,” Baxter said.

However, according to Baxter, the project is about much more than asking children to become involved in fundraising for charities.

“Many Australian schools are involved in charity projects. The large majority of this activity is devoted to raising money for, and raising awareness about, the chosen charities vision, mission and goals.  This is fantastic, however Design for Change is brilliantly different.

“In this competition we encourage children to think beyond money, and fundraising. We ask them to get directly involved in designing and leading change in their local community.”

Baxter believes that schools who get involved in the contest can expect to benefit in numerous ways, including opportunities to connect with other schools from across the globe, and the promotion of ‘action learning – a form of education driven by action rather than rote learning.

She also hopes that Australian students will gain personal benefits.

“Our goal is to have as many children as possible catch the ‘I Can’ bug. One thing that struck me after visiting primary schools across Melbourne, is the lack of belief children have in their own ability. Even after watching stories of change from children in other countries, many of the students still didn’t believe they could create a similar project. I wonder what it is about our education system and society that creates children who don’t believe in their own ability? Why do they doubt themselves so much when they’re only 11 years old? We want this to shift. We want young people to believe they CAN do anything. Anything is possible.”

Schools who wish to take part must register by 17 September, and will be expected to implement their idea throughout the month of October. The competition winners will be announced on November 12, and a lasting legacy of inspiring stories from around the world will be presented to the United Nations.

Baxter believes that the competition will demonstrate that children worldwide have the capacity to amaze and inspire their teachers, parents and their communities.

“We want young people to believe that change IS possible, and that THEY can drive it. We’re expecting over 250,000 children to participate across 22 countries – making this the largest movement of young people creating change ever.”

Schools who want to be involved in Design For Change Australia must register by 17 September 2010.

For further information, visit www.designforchange.com.au

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Youna Angevin-Castro

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