Children and adults learn through the contest that ‘I CAN’ are the two most powerful words a person can believe. Children who have discovered this are helping to change the world.

This year, the contest reaches 60,000 schools across India, inspiring hundreds of thousands of children, their teachers and parents, to celebrate the fact that change is possible and that our children can lead that change.

The challenge asks students to do four very simple things: Feel, Imagine, Do and Share. Children are dreaming up and leading brilliant ideas all over the world from challenging age-old superstitions in rural communities, to earning their own money to finance school computers to solving the problem of heavy school bags- children are proving that they have what it takes to be able to design a future that is desired.

This year Design for Change has spread to 30 countries and will infect over 350,000 children with the ‘I CAN’ bug. It is fuelled by passion, belief and a compelling sense of purpose.

This competition focuses on 8 to 13 year olds with the aim to change the perception of children being 'helpless' to seeing children as 'drivers of change'. In simple words- one doesn't have to 'grow up' to make powerful change!

Children from all over the world, with simple, fresh, bold ideas of change will demonstrate that they CAN and WILL design solutions for some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Last year, the Design for Giving School contest stories ranged from stopping child marriages to filling potholes, from combating loneliness to converting waste dumps into gardens. It could be anything from a shoe drive to a mass donation to charity or even a smile at stranger’s day.

Tool-kits have already been dispatched to the schools. By August 15, schools will select ideas, identify areas of work and register.

During the Joy of giving week (September last week) the teams will start a week-long exercise to translate their ideas into practical projects and show the change brought about. On October 2, they will share their ideas and experiences through reports which have to be submitted latest by October 15, along with relevant documents, photos, videos, press clippings etc. The names of the winners will be announced by a panel of international jury on November 14 and on November 19, will be the awards ceremony at Ahmedabad.

‘Since some schools may have examinations, it has been decided that schools can hold the week long project between August 15 to 2^nd October’, says Brij Khandelwal, Regional Programme Coordinator.