I Can
The words ‘I Can’ suggest empowerment. The Design for Change programme is about empowering children to change their lives through designing solutions. Amar Chitra Katha is proud to be the publisher of I Can: Stories of Children Who Are Changing Their World.
The Design for Change programme, which recently won the prestigious Index Prize for Design, is a global movement designed to give young people an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action.
Design for Change has inspired hundreds of thousands of young people, their teachers and parents, to celebrate the fact that they matter, that change is possible and that they can lead and inspire that change.
The Design for Change Challenge asks students to do four very simple things: Feel, Imagine, Do and Share. This simple framework has inspired children across the world to say ‘I CAN’ instead of ‘Can I?’
Children of all ages are designing and implementing projects that really touch the hearts of their communities. They are dreaming up and leading brilliant ideas all over the world, from challenging age-old superstitions in rural communities to cleaning up cities, from earning their own money to finance school computers to tackling loneliness, students are proving that they have what it takes to be able to ‘design’ a future that is desired.
In two years, Design for Change has spread to thirty-three countries around the world, and this year will infect over 25 million children with the ‘I CAN’ bug without capital investment, without central management and without a business plan. It is fuelled by human capital alone passion, belief and a compelling sense of purpose.
This book contains twenty extraordinary stories from the Design for Change 2010 programme. From Taiwan to Tamil Nadu, from New York to Nagpur, these are tales of students who decided that they could transform their environment. From building school infrastructure to cleaning up their city and helping the helpless, these stories - compellingly retold by Devika Rangachari - are an inspirational read for all.
