Calling all young superheroes aged 8–18 years!
Join the largest global movement—of and by children.
Welcome to The 15th DFC I CAN School Challenge—where children learn essential 21st century skills and become future-proof.
For 14 years, children all over India have used DFC’s award-winning FIDS framework to design and implement projects of change for real-life challenges.
When equipped with real-life skills recommended by the NEP 2020, like critical thinking, creativity, empathy, problem-solving, and leadership, children confidently say—'I CAN!'.
This year, celebrate DFC’s 15th I CAN School Challenge by instilling the ‘I CAN!’ confidence in your students.
Empower them with the FIDS framework to design and implement a project of change.
The project should be creative, bold, long-lasting, and easily replicable, and have a quick impact.
Submit multiple projects to increase your chances of winning big prizes.
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Design For Change is the largest global movement—of and by children. It originated in India.
Inspired by Gandhian principles, Kiran Bir Sethi—a designer, social entrepreneur, TED speaker, and Global
Teacher Award nominee—founded Design For Change in 2009, in Ahmedabad.
Since 2009, children from 73 countries across the world have benefited from the DFC movement.
What is DFC?
Celebrity Endorsements
To participate in the I CAN School Challenge, follow FIDS—DFC’s award-winning framework specially designed for kids.
Young people observe their surroundings and list the issues that bother them.
Skills: Empathy, Communication SEE VIDEO
They collaborate and brainstorm to identify creative solutions for the issues that bother them.
Skills: Creativity, Critical Thinking SEE VIDEO
They develop and implement a plan of action considering their time, resources, budget, and skills.
Skills: Planning, Teamwork, Leadership SEE VIDEO
They document and share their project to inspire others to get involved.
Skills: Digital Literacy, Documentation SEE VIDEO
With its origins in India, the DFC movement has achieved global presence across six continents.
Team No Sweat (Gujarat, India)
Emergen Bag (Taiwan)
A Toy Plane to Reforest Valley (Hojas Anchas, Colombia)
Safe Mode Pissing System (Tamil Nadu, India)
Get Inspired by more such videos of young superheroes in India designing for change.
Explore the DFC Global library with stories of change from across the world.
The Be the Change (BTC) Conference is a lively, one-of-a-kind, international gathering of DFC’s young superheroes
and their mentors from all over the world. It takes place annually and has a different host country each year.
BTC 2022 Malaysia & Uruguay
BTC 2019 Rome
Noted social entrepreneurs and designers from India and abroad form the DFC Jury.
All project submissions undergo thorough evaluation and are scored. The DFC Jury carefully studies the
transformation documented in each project—from real-life challenge to solution—to shortlist the best projects.
DFC Jury’s Special Message for Young Superheroes
(Hindi)
(English)
The registration deadline for the 15th DFC I CAN School Challenge is 30 September, 2024. The submission deadline is 14 November, 2024. If you submit after 14 November, your project will be considered for next year's I CAN School Challenge. To register for the Challenge, please visit: https://challenge.dfcworld.org/
In this 15th year of the DFC I CAN School Challenge, we welcome all students to participate. We recommend a core team of 5 students for each project of change. However, there is no limit to the number of project submissions from each school.
The recommended age for participation is between 8 to 18 years (classes 3 to 12). However, we also welcome student participants who are older or younger than the recommended age group. If students older or younger than the recommended age group are participating, kindly mention that in your submission.
Submissions are done using the Challenge portal: https://challenge.dfcworld.org/ . Once you have registered, you can use your account to submit a project.
You can either submit a photo story, or a video story. In case of a photo story, you will be required to upload 4 photographs for each of the four steps—FEEL, IMAGINE, DO, and SHARE.
For a video story, you will need to upload your video on YouTube and paste the link to your video on our Challenge portal. The video should not be more than 3 minutes long. Please remember to make your video public when you upload it on YouTube.
Yes, a school/organisation can submit multiple projects of change using one account. This year, to celebrate 15 years of DFC's I CAN School Challenge, we invite you to implement DFC's FIDS framework in every class to give all students the opportunity to learn problem-solving and essential 21st century skills. The I CAN School Challenge is a simple way to enable Design Thinking and 21st century skills in your school.
If you need assistance,
please call our helpline number
