Including young people and their ideas is a growing worldwide trend and one we have been actively advocating for, where young people are finally being seen as active stakeholders in their own futures. Below, you will find a selection of examples of the Design-a-thon children taking stage:

Presentation at the Municipality of Amsterdam
In February 2020, the three teams from the Global Children’s Designathon, visited city council member Touria Meliani (Alderman for Art and Culture and the Digital City, Amsterdam), to present her with the three most empathetic, innovative and sustainable solutions for food and climate action.

Wij Amsterdam, Platform for Amsterdam heroes and initiatives
In April 2020, Mijntje (10 years) took stage during the promotion of the Wij Amsterdam initiatives, to talk about the online Corona Challenge and her ideas to tackle the problems around the coronavirus.

Mama Gaia Talks
In May 2020, Mijntje (10 years) was interviewed by Merijn Everaarts, founder of Dopper, about the online Corona Challenge and her ideas to tackle the problems around the coronavirus.

Educaution
In May 2020, Lya (11 years) was interviewed during the ‘Educaution’ livecast by Pakhuis de Zwijger about her dream to become a scientist and to tackle environmental pollution.

Presentation at the Municipality of Rotterdam
In September 2020, children from the Nelson Mandela School in Rotterdam met with Michiel Grauss (Alderman for Poverty Reduction, Debt Management and Informal Care, Rotterdam) to present him with a report on the insights and ideas of 164 children to tackle poverty in Rotterdam.

Cinekid Festival
In October 2020, as part of the Cinekid Festival Francis from Tanzania, Nora from the Netherlands and Joppe from Belgium talked about their inventions for the climate.

Ashoka Changemaker Summit
In November 2020, Mijntje and Breno (10 years) joined a panel discussion at the Ashoka Changemaker Summit session ‘Over the New Frontier: Youth Defining Success’, about youth leading change and redefining an idea of success for their generation.

#LearningPlanet Festival
On 24January 2021, Mozes (10 yrs) presented his idea on the Clean Energy to Stefania Giannini, the ADG of @unesco and Francois Taddei of @cri.paris. The occasion was the #InternationalDayOfEducation and the #LearningPlanet Festival. Together with 8 other inspiring Youth Organisations from Kenya, Morocco, France and India, he represented the Netherlands.