Design for Change — Ideas from children that bring hope for the future

DUBAI: A smokeless clay pot stove that can save lives in rural India; a device that can refreeze the Arctic; and a ‘Green Point System’ that will incentivise recycling are just some of the judges’ top choices at Design for Change showdown at Expo’s Terra Auditorium, where school children ages 12-16 showcased creativity and innovation for a sustainable future.

The event was part of the I CAN Children’s Global Summit, which culminates at Expo from December 18 to 21, with participants from Lebanon, Sudan, Palestine, and India, among others.

Design for Change is one of the largest global movements empowering children to unleash their ‘I can’ ideas. The participating schoolchildren, who were from 25 schools in the UAE, have been working on their projects since June.

A total of 37 projects were prepared, which also included an anti-bullying app called ‘Bullytproof’; a platform for students to get back on track after sliding down on their educational performances during the COVID-19 pandemic; a sustainable plant-based diet course; an adaptive voice-controlled wheelchair; and even a basketball hoop on garbage bins to make throwing trash fun.

GEMS Modern Academy brought the international event to the UAE after attending a similar international event in Dubai after attending one held in Rome two years ago.

“The good thing is that the children are trying to find solutions to the problems they face,” said Nargish Khambatta, Vice President for Education at GEMS Modern Academy.

The judges were certainly impressed.

“This is not what I was doing when I was your age,” Riley Gonta, programme manager, told the schoolchildren before announcing the top winner – the NS Chulha prototype, a non-smoking stove chulha, which makes use of pellets instead of wood, entered by a team of students from GEMS New Millennium School – Dubai.

Second place was a machine that would refreeze the Arctic, and was prepared by students from GEMS Al Khaleej International School. The project features solar panels, carbon-capturing fans, and sensors. The students said they were working on improving the model and going into greater detail with its features.

Nour Alrababah, the students’ guidance counsellor, was elated that the team won. She said: “I’m proud of what they did. They have done a lot of hard work. When you see these kinds of ideas from this young generation, you feel there is still hope.”

Third was the Green Point System by students of GEMS Millennium School – Sharjah, which involves a waste collection drive and provides ‘green passports’, among other incentives.

Dibjot Bawa, a Senior Education Consultant, and also one of the judges, said, “I think the ideas are very innovative, and coming out of the COVID situation, with the children able to put their perspective across and implement it, creating a kind of a prototype, is something truly amazing.”

Source: Expo 2020 Website