Design for Change Finland: the first steps

On Tuesday, the 27th, a team of DFC Finland volunteers (including some representatives of the ASI team), Riitta Toivonen, Anna Keune and myself went to visit Saija Benjamin’s class of 9 year olds at Haaga Peruskoulu, Helsinki. They were a playful but very welcoming bunch! Unsure of what to expect, we screened a few DFC videos.

Saija then explained to the kids that the floor was theirs to come up with suggestions for improving their world. After a few exchanges, they were raring to go. Once they were asked to form groups of 4, they sprung from their desks like coiled springs and knew all along who exactly they wanted to team up with!

It was only when they put pen to paper that we truly understood that they had understood what we told them thus far! It was not uncommon to see, sometimes three of them simultaneously, working on the same sheet of paper. It was also not uncommon that some of the boys would get carried away into drawing their favorite weapons, for instance. Nevertheless, teamwork and sharing ideas seemed to come effortlessly! Moreover, there was not a single instance of any of them sitting around. They sprung to action as soon as they could. Adults could certainly take a leaf or two out of their books!

In their “ideation” phase of about half an hour, they came up with several illustrations of social problems. Drunkards on the streets, people use a car even for small distances when they could use a bicycle, bullying in school, energy drinks are being sold even to kids underage, the war in Afghanistan, people throw litter in the street, pollution, protection of nature, animal rights, when it rains it is boring in the park, windows have been broken in the park – vandalism, the drawing competition was cancelled, there are beggars on the streets, there are no basketball hoops in the school yard, Habbo characters are sometimes stolen (video game).

Just before recess, the teams came together and shared their ideas with the rest. While some of them preferred to point out their sketches on paper, others just stood and delivered. Although we anticipated that kids would feel a sense of ownership about their ideas, they were quite attentive to the others!

After the recess, we summarized their ideas on the blackboard and decided to give each team the option to pick a problem and work on a solution. We showed them a video from the DFC initiatives in Mumbai, examples of kids proposing and taking on solutions of their own!

Moving on, they got back into groups and started sketching out solutions that they could implement. Among their suggestions were, a letter to president about the war in Afghanistan, a public educational drive to encourage people to drive less. What’s most important is not that the solutions are complete and definitive, but that they make the children feel empowered to change a situation around them. This, as I understand, is the crux of the entire movement, and it certainly is infectious.

We’re catching up with them in a week’s time to review their suggestions and help them make a roadmap for themselves!

For an “intervention” such as today’s to be successful, it certainly requires a minimum level of faith and effort from the class teacher. We were more than fortunate in that respect to have a willing and proactive teacher in Saija. Some other cool asides included kids wanting to filming themselves in action, and fist bumps/high-fives across the board!

Today’s event could well be called the defining moment between vague optimism and clear conviction!

If you are a teacher, student, researcher or member of civil society who is intrigued and wants to know more, write us. If you are interested in joining the DFC Finland team of volunteers to take this initiative to classrooms across Finland, write to us. If you think you would have fun working with kids, reaching out to city-level educational bodies, website content management, or anything else, write us! We’re reachable at DFC.Finland@gmail.com.

Pavan Ramkumar

Some background about DFC global

The Design for Change contest is a global movement for empowering children to, in the words of the Riverside School, India and Gandhi himself, “be the change they wish to see in the world”. The movement is called the Design for Change Contest 2010 and aims to activate children to think on their own about what social problems/challenges/