British students challenged to ‘shape the future’
1 May 2014 10:23 AM
Schoolchildren across
the UK are being invited to put their best ideas forward on how the government
can make life better for girls and women in developing
countries.
Young people with fresh ideas
and the desire to make the world a better place are being invited to make their
voices heard to ministers through the second annual ‘Shape The
Future’ competition.
Last year’s successful
contest drew a great response from pupils who were invited to draw up their own
set of global development goals from 2015 when the current set expires. The
winning team travelled to central London to present their entry to Bill Gates,
government ministers and development experts.
This year, boys and girls aged
11-16 are being challenged to come up with their most innovative ideas for
transforming everyday life for girls and women around the world, currently
marked by child and early forced marriage, lack of education and the daily
threat of violence.
Entries can be submitted as
videos, audio blogs or presentations and finalists will have the chance to
present their ideas in the run up to a major summit to tackle female genital
mutilation (FGM) and child and early forced marriage, which will be hosted by
the Prime Minister this summer in London.
Justine Greening
said:
If you are born a girl in the
developing world you are less likely to go to school, get a job or have a bank
account. Millions cannot even choose who they marry or when to have
children.
But the future can be different.
Building on the success of last year, this competition gives British boys and
girls the chance to tell us what they want the future to look like and I hope
that as many as possible take up this opportunity.
Girls and women in many
countries across the globe face serious obstacles – from access to
education and work to the threat of violence and rape. This competition will
help British students better understand these challenges.
The UK government is helping
millions of the world’s poorest girls and women go to school, access
modern methods of contraception and give birth safely, and is working to drive
issues like female genital mutilation and early and forced marriage up the
global agenda.
Hundreds of students got
involved in last year’s competition, Shape the Future 2013, which asked
them to present their ideal set of development goals for tackling
poverty:
- Last year’s competition
winners Caroline Chisholm School in Northampton presented their new set of
goals called ‘High 5ive: It’s Time to Change’ to Bill Gates.
Their video entry focused on five areas: ‘Eliminate don’t
Discriminate’, ‘Sharing is Caring’, ‘Happy and
Healthy’, ‘Sowing the Seed’, and ‘Peace and
Power’.
- Runners-up Cirencester Deer Park
School in Gloucestershire used the letters in ‘FREEDOM’ to spell
out their new goals: Food equality, Role of developed country, Educational
opportunity, Environmental sustainability, Development index, Oceania, and
Medicine.
- Hutchesons’ Grammar School
in Glasgow set their video entry on 1 January 2016 – they assessed the
Millennium Development Goals’ success and recommended a new set of goals,
to include Human Rights and Fairtrade.
- Reigate School in Surrey came up
with two new development goals: ‘Trade’ and ‘A Safer
World’.
- The team at St Bede’s
School in Surrey used the existing Millennium Development Goals and some new
ideas to develop a set of goals focusing on Health, Education, Equality,
Environment and Security.
Notes to
editors
- Schools have until Monday 23
June to submit their entries. Presentations can in any format, for example a
video, audio blog or PowerPoint™
- For more information and to
enter the competition, visitwww.globaldimension.org.uk/shapethefuture2014