Every Child is an Entrepreneur! [Social Entrepreneurship]

[Editorial Notes: At Pluggd.in, we cover a lot on social entrepreneurship and interesting experiments all around the country. Here is presenting a guest article by Aarti Shrivastava, an entrepreneur focused on media for social change. Read her earlier contributions Design is Capable of Igniting Change !! & You don’t need to ask for permission to change the world !!]

The idea of “Every Child an Entrepreneur” came about when the kids desired changes in their school in the form of computer education. Since the school did not have funds for a computer , the kids initially decided to raise fund by donation but coming from low income communities, they were able to raise only 3K which was not sufficient to buy a computer.

Despite the set-back, the children turned it into an opportunity by coming up with a brilliant idea to organize themselves in interest groups and work over Saturdays to produce artifacts for a Fun fair using the initial 3K as seed money. The idea was that they wanted to create a market where they could sell their goods and hopefully raise enough funds for a computer.

On 2nd October 2010, the Sunrise Team organized SUNFEST – A FUN FAIR!! The Fun Fair was Phase 2 of the “Every Child an Entrepreneur” program wherein the school children tried to raise funds for buying a school computer; from a fun filled event featuring games, prizes, music, delicious food and art+crafts made exclusively by the kids over the past few weeks. The event was a huge success with more than 20 stalls put up by the students attracting more than 1000 visitors. The event made a profit of 13K which was enough to buy a computer as was the original objective of the “Every Child an Entrepreneur”.

The most heartening aspect though is the fact that it has given the kids the confidence of “I CAN” and they are already planning for a larger “Annual Event” with the objective of raising funds for a water purification unit in school. As was apt on occasion of 2nd October, “The Children became the CHANGE they want to see in the world”