Competition offers students a change to change world

P3 Foundation Media Release June 20 2013

Competition offers high school students a change to change the world.

P3 Foundation’s Social Enterprise Competition is offering high school students in Christchurch a chance to develop their entrepreneurial skills and create real social change both in New Zealand and overseas.

P3 Foundation is a youth-led development organisation focused on the eradication of extreme poverty. The Social Enterprise Competition is an entrepreneurial challenge that supports this aim by creating future leaders in social innovation.

Social Enterprise Competition national project manager Simran Poonia says the competition is a great way to develop young people’s potential and get them engaged with the world around them.

“At P3 Foundation, we believe young people can come up with amazing ideas for addressing social issues both at home and internationally. The Social Enterprise Competition gives them a chance to actually make the world a better place.

“Last year’s winners ‘Lunches 4 Less’ came up with a programme to teach kids how to make cheap, healthy lunches. The first programme ran in Kingsford Primary School in Mangere East this April and was a great success. The team are planning to do more programmes in the area.”
The Lunches 4 Less participants say the competition gave the group a chance to solve an issue at home first.

“The families in our community inspired us to make a change. As young primary school kids, L4L would definitely have helped not only ourselves, but our families too. As a group, we were inspired by a quote from Lao Tse; ‘If you tell me, I’ll listen, if you show me, I’ll see, if I experience it I’ll learn’.”

The Social Enterprise Competition gets groups of four students, from years 11, 12 and 13 to identify a social issue relating to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. They are mentored as they come up with a practical solution. Regional winners go on to the Social Enterprise Competition National Finals Conference, where they can win up to $1500 to implement their idea, plus ongoing support to make it happen.

Registrations are open until June 30 2013. Registration forms for both participants and mentors as well as further information can be found on the P3 Foundation website: http://www.p3foundation.org/sec.

ENDS

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