The Oscars of Children’s awards honoured top 100 winning schools and school leaders of the Design For Change school challenge across 10,000 schools from 26 states at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) in Ahmedabad at the ‘I CAN’ Awards on Saturday. The guests of honor this year were- Cricket legend Rahul Dravid, Actor & Activist Rahul Bose and 9 time World Billiards Champion Geet Sethi, who extended their support to inspire a billion children in India to BE THE CHANGE!

Former Indian captain and cricket legend Rahul Dravid said “The concept of Design For Change reverses the role where children teach and inspire us through their ideas and actions.”

Performers, artists, dancers, musicians, entertainers, theatre-actors were all called in from all over India, to conduct workshops and entertain our young heroes of change. The focus of the workshop was to make it as much of a learning experience for all its participants, as it was a celebration of their achievement. Abhishek Saha conducted a workshop for educators for how to use theatre in education, while Ameen Haque’s session focused on the power of telling stories.

One of the main attractions was the workshop conducted by Parle G named ‘the Power of G’. The session focused on using a genius group of children, collaborating to make an edible installation using more than 500 packets of Parle G biscuits in 90 minutes. The installation was a star attraction for all the participants and attendees of the event and was placed at the Gala Dinner after the I Can Awards 2014 as dessert.

Speaking about this gala event, Mr. Mayank Shah, Deputy Marketing Manager , Parle Products said, “We are proud to partner with DFC for the ‘I CAN’ Awards 2014 as we strongly believe that every child has the potential to be a Genius and can make a difference. Our ‘Aao Banaye Kal ke Genius’ campaign which had ‘Roko Mat, Toko Mat’ as its tagline is based on the same idea as the DFC movement, which was the driving force behind this collaboration. We hope that this synergy brings about a change and makes the world a better place”.

Parle G had recently embarked on a ‘movement to free children from the bondage of structured education’ as well as launched its ‘Aao banaye kal ke Genius’ campaign and has now joined hands with Design For Change to celebrate the exemplary work of the winners. Both the brands have taken this initiative in spearheading change in our society and their combined effort is aimed at nurturing curious minds and celebrating Child Geniuses by providing a platform for every child to shine!

“There is a need to bring about a change in the current education system and include sports in the curriculum. The playground provides a better learning environment as compared to the regular chalk and talk method.” said Geet Sethi, world renowned snooker champion.

“If we want our children to follow their dreams we would need the parents to undergo a shift in mindset. Workshops need to be organized in such a way that parents realize that children can pursue much more than engineering and medicine.”  Meera Issacs, Principal, Cathedral School

”I think that sports is the door to excellence in academics which is probably the most critical element of education” according to our community.” Said Rahul Bose

In 2014, Design for Change received close to 2000 stories of change from all over India which went through a rigorous jury process to select the Top 100. The top 20 of these 100 stories were awarded prizes from Disney, Amar Chitra Katha and Educational Initiatives. While the top 5 most innovative stories got INR 50 000/- each, Disney also gave Disney Play Centers to the top 20 schools. Amar Chitra Katha and Educational Initiatives lavished these 100 school students with gift hampers and online learning packages respectively.

Design For Change, the largest global movement whose reach has grown to more than 35 countries in the past 6 years, promotes the belief in children that they can make the world a better place. Students participate in the Design for Change School Challenge by identifying anything that bothers them, and to transform it using the simple 4-step process of Feel, Imagine, Do and Share.

source : Sachin Murdeshwar