Pitch it 2018: Make your school 100% Wild!

What happened in Pitch It?

The first edition of Pitch It, finale of The Kids Sustainable School Challenge was a success. 

103 kids from eight districts of Bihar travelled in 11 buses along with their parents and 100 teachers to Nalanda (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) for the event to pitch their school-change enterprises ideas. For most of the kids, this was their first time on a big stage, in front of a large audience. “My legs are shaking! But I need to do it for my friends and my school”- exclaimed Shipra before taking the big stage to present her school enterprise idea in front a panel of judges which constituted of kids. 

How do you calm the nerves of 103 kids the night before their big day? An evening of fun and frolic of course. A moonlight market was set up the day before the red carpet event where kids displayed products they’d made from recycled things, there were street carts with mango juice, peanuts and fruits. To inspire the kids even further, local hero entrepreneurs were present to demonstrate problem solving skills through their products- pure organic honey, organic compost, solar lamps etc.

The big day of the event witnessed a crowd of 1,300 people. The size of the crowd explains why Shipra was nervous. Out of the 103 kids pitching their idea, 50 won grants for their Sustainable School Enterprise. Shipra’s Recycle to Clean Co., Shristi’s Let’s Play Co., Chandan’s Clean Water for All Co., Zabeen’s Wacky Sports Co., Shivam’s The Greenhouse Co., were some of the most promising enterprise ideas focusing on real life problems that kids are facing. Your money will act as the seed capital for starting up these school enterprises.

What happened next

Every year there are floods in Bihar, this year again, more than 50% of the schools we work in are affected by floods. Many schools are completely underwater. Which means, schools are closed, children move with their families to the highest place: the road. In the schools that are open, our winning kids have begun breaking ground on their school enterprises, making blue-prints, finding carpenters, plumbers, toilet-entrepreneurs to come to their schools to help them plan, and soon, to begin. 

“Too many of my friends have fallen sick due to the water in our school, I miss my friends. I’ve found a way to bring clean water for my school," Kriti has missed her friends that dropped out becuase they were sick, because there was no drinking water. She's looking forward to bringing them back to school when her clean-water solution is in action. 

May and June were summer holidays, so schools were closed. When schools reopened our entire team was out visiting every grant-winning child and their school. Wherever the team went, the cooperation from the teachers, principals and the students was fun, positive, sometimes overwhelming in excitement, asking 'When do we begin, now?". In order to ensure that all school enterprises are set up to be sustainable, with a bigger aim of increasing the number of kids in schools, we adopted a holistic approach in solving the problems that kids wanted to solve at school with their enterprises.

We asked kids to set up kid committees in all schools involving kids from all grades, not just Grade 10, but Grade 9-12: everyone will be a part of making the school enterprise a success. These kid committees are hard at work putting the finishing touches on their research and finding local entrepreneurs, mentors, heroes, parents, artisans to come help build their school enterprises.

As we began, there are floods. We'll be back when the water recedes to see which kids enterprises need to begin again, start anew or just start. Stay tuned. 

Thank you for your support, through popular demand we're bringing Pitch it back for 2018, and this year's theme is 100% Wild, we're asking kids to define enterprises that are organic, reccyle, repurpose, remake and don't pollute. Our bet is on the wild bees, honey and beekeepers, that's a story we'll share with you next.