Students’ initiative for COVID-19 awareness around safe and continued education wins the Design for Change Award

The students of Satya Bharti School, Gurgawan, observed the effects of the pandemic on everyone’s day-to-day lives. However, what was most concerning to them was continuing their education whilst complying the safety norms during the period of temporary closure of schools.

The said problem affects students across the world; however, students residing in remote regions are impacted more because of the lack of access to technology. More than 200 children joined hands to address the problem. They contacted the local communities and started coming up with solutions in collaboration. The students created WhatsApp groups of different classes and added teachers, the village Sarpanch and doctors. They encouraged people to share solutions and advice through drawings, voice messages and written messages.

After having consulted the stakeholders, the children came up with a three-step solution to the problem:

• Spreading awareness about the coronavirus COVID-19: Communicating with the community members to answer the basic FAQs and encouraging them to spread awareness
• Avoid catching the virus smartly: With doctors on the groups, they planned to increase the awareness about the preventive measures and safety norms that should be taken to avoid catching the virus.
• Continuing studies without added hassle: continuing virtual education whilst being aware about how to prevent further spread of the virus. 

The students divided the responsibilities amongst themselves and assigned timelines to each task. They drafted a structure to approach and implement their plan of action. Despite the challenges, coordination issues, adjusting to the new normal, unavailability of technology and many such hurdles, the students managed to reach out to over 250 people and developed a replicable and scalable model for other neighbouring villages to follow as well. They also plan to share their plan on social media.

The students were recognized in the top 30 most inspiring ideas of change 2020 in the Design for Change – UNICEF YuWaah Youth Challenge under the category ‘Novel Idea’ for their initiative.

The Design for Change – UNICEF YuWaah Youth Challenge is an award that recognizes the efforts of the children around the world who have taken an initiative to identify, analyze, and act upon to bring about a transformation.