‘An audacious, ambitious celebration of giving’

 

It may be time to change our perception of children as helpless and incapable of initiating change – a simple word, and yet one so profound. Inspired by the Mahatma’s statement, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” an idea in the shape of a ‘Design for Giving’ contest has been planted to enable school going children to believe in themselves as agents of change.
Promoted by The Riverside School, Ahmedabad, the Design for Giving contest is part of the Joy of Giving week, an initiative of the GiveIndia Foundation. To be held from September 27 to October 3, the Week is the first of its kind in India and an ambitious social movement that aims to engage two crore Indians to give.
So does that mean people aren’t giving enough? On the contrary, says Kiran Bir Sethi, Founder/Director of The Riverside School, in conversation with The Morung Express, “We have a great tradition of giving. And the whole idea of the contest was to bring it as a festival – a celebration!”
“This is an open, audacious, ambitious celebration of giving. Some people don’t like to talk about it; some talk about it. We say ‘don’t be shy about it; let’s be open about it!’” enthuses Kiran, who hopes this very festival of giving becomes part of the Indian tradition. With enthusiastic response pouring in from “over 30,000 schools participating from 11 states”, the contest has now been made more flexible in terms of the age of students, but on one condition: “Do not let the teachers drive the project; let them just guide it.”
Rallying behind the organisers with expert opinion and help in this mammoth task are a team of well-known organisations and institutions – NID Ahmedabad, IDEO, and Institute of Design at Stanford as the knowledge partners, independent design experts, besides the student body of The Riverside School. Gray Matters Capital has also given a grant towards supporting the affordable private schools (APS) so that all schools manage to participate. Besides, there are the contest’s anchors, independent organisations representing their states and cities, who garner support from other organisations to ensure maximum participation in their respective states.
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Also providing media support is CNN-IBN and Disney, while actor/activist Rahul Bose has been roped in as the brand ambassador for the contest. In addition, Pratham Books (www.prathambooks.org) will publish the selected stories of change into a series of books that will be translated into 7 languages. And “that’s why we specifically want stories from Nagaland,” says Kiran, who has never been to the Northeast but hopes to visit some day.
“It’s not for the lack of implementation that ideas like these don’t see the light of day,” says Kiran, an NID graduate, while referring to aProCh – a Protagonist in every Child – for which she was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship 2008. “Very often, we just don’t know what to do,” she says, explaining, “aProCh is an idea that’s gone to several cities now because it’s replicable. We don’t need any great financial support to replicate an idea like this.”
With aProCh, the city of Ahmedabad has become more child-friendly. For the second year running, the busiest streets in the city are closed down to traffic once a month and converted into a place for children. Activities for children are held on the streets and involve street plays, painting competitions, dance and music, among others.
We need to continue to invest in our children to have the ability to ‘be the change’ and to get as many people to believe that the children can, says Kiran, adding that the ‘Design for Giving’ contest can be a great start, but that it mustn’t end there.

 

Morung Express News

 

‘Giving’ in Nagaland

Sanen Imchen, the Executive Director and founder of Benchmark Education Initiative, the contest anchor for Nagaland, has full faith that the students of Nagaland will do a terrific job. Busy reaching out to schools to promote the idea of children as change makers, Sanen admits that the response from schools was slow in coming, but only due to the ongoing summer vacations. He, however, expressed optimism that at least fifty schools would take part in the ‘Design for Giving’ contest.
Laying stress on the students themselves taking the initiative in coming up with ideas, and implementing them, Sanen said the purpose of ‘Design for Giving’ is to make the children, thinking individuals. Many schools in Nagaland do not encourage independent thought in children, and lessons are mostly spoon-fed to pupils. But when children are allowed to take initiative and think independently, says Sanen, “this becomes a lifestyle, a value that will remain their whole lives.”
Benchmark Education Initiative is a social enterprise that seeks to make meaningful contribution in the field of education. Besides setting up innovative schools that provide a memorable school experience, the organisation also looks to facilitating teacher training for schools by arranging resource persons, conducting seminars, providing a platform for policy-makers and education bodies, and conducting Personal Leadership training.