SoCh (Social Change) in Action launches the 3rd Design for Change School Challenge Singapore
SINGAPORE, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- SoCh in Action, the social enterprise behind the Singapore Chapter of Design for Change (DFC), has announced the launch of the program in the 3rd consecutive year. The DFC School Challenge Singapore 2012 launch event took place at the National Library Board and was attended by some 75 teachers from over 40 schools. Over a hundred teams are expected to take part in this year's DFC program in Singapore.
"We are very pleased with the overwhelming interest of teachers and school heads to join Design for Change. The program gives children the unique opportunity to lead the change and tackle real issues in the society through their own ideas and action. All these efforts will go a long way in making Singapore a gracious society," says Madhu Verma, Founder of SoCh in Action.
The challenge saw 80 teams taking part in 2011, six times more than the pioneering 14 teams in 2010. With the current launch turnout, SoCh in Action anticipates more than 100 teams to register.
Design for Change is the largest global movement designed to give children an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action. It is the brain child of Kiran Bir Sethi, an Ashoka fellow, who started the program from India in 2009. "It has since grown to have global partners in 33 countries including Singapore and reaches out to more than 300,000 schools, inspiring hundreds and thousands of children to address local issues in their community," Verma shares.
In addition to the Singapore Chapter of the DFC School Challenge, SoCh in Action has designed and managed other programs that complement the challenge and to give a holistic end-to-end approach towards educating 9-14 year olds to become active agents of social change.
These are the CatCh: Catalyst for Change Workshops, which provide children with the stimulation and skills for achieving effective results in their social change projects; and the Be the Change Exposition, a culminating event that showcases the projects and ideas of the participating teams that has managed to attract educators, students & social sector organizations.
The DFC School Challenge Singapore 2012 will see teams awarded prizes in categories such as 'Boldest Idea', 'Easiest to Replicate', 'Most People Impacted'. All of the ideas will be designed and developed entirely by the students with support from their mentor teachers and evaluated by local panel of judges.
Last year, some of the issues that students sought to impact included raising awareness about endangered sharks and saying 'No' to shark's fin soup, designing user-friendly exercise equipments for the elderly, addressing Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) pressures, teens providing peer support to tackle teen depression, and primary 4 students helping primary 1 students to settle into a new school environment. Many of these projects are still being continued.
Registrations are now open to all schools in Singapore until 30th April 2012. For more information, contact Aarathi Arumugam at Aarathi@SoChinAction.com
About SoCh in Action
SoCh in Action designs and implements various programs and events for the community to be involved in the social change process. SoCh believes that anyone can be a change-maker; through new thoughts, simple beliefs and small actions. For partnership opportunities write to Madhu Verma at madhu@SoChinAction.com. For more details visit www.SoChinAction.com
PR Newswire supports Design for Change School Challenge Singapore 2012 organized by SoCh in Action as the official newswire partner.
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Press Contacts
Donna Garcia / John Tan
Rice Communications for Design for Change Singapore
Tel.: +65-6221-8045
Email: donna.garcia@ricecomms.com / john.tan@ricecomms.com
