Diseña el Cambio

In the autumn of 2010, a group of school children from the rural town of Tepanzacoalco, Ajalpan, in the state of Puebla, Mexico, organized the local community to help repair the toilets at their local school. The toilets were in such a bad state that many of the local girls did not want to attend classes. As part of the initiative, and to ensure its longevity, they also promoted general practices of good hygiene within their school and the wider community. Although this demonstration of initiative, creativity and sustainable social impact by the children is remarkable, it was far from an isolated or spontaneous incident. That year, in Mexico alone, around 1,500 similar projects were organized as part of what has become the world’s largest school-based competition: ‘Design for Change’. The contest, known in Mexico as ‘Diseña el Cambio’, ¹ was run again in Mexico over the summer of 2011–2012 and demonstrated remarkable growth, resulting in approximately 4,500 new projects for change, all initiated, designed and led by school children. Similar stories can be found from all over the world, from raising awareness about, and working to prevent, child marriages in India, to redesigning a children’s ward in a hospital in Australia, by making it more colorful and child-friendly.