Can children contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

Karen Ng FRSA asks for input from Fellows into the content of 'Little Book for Big Changes', inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, Little Book for Big Changes is a children's activity book which helps kids develop into responsible global citizens. Little Big Changes, an initiative co-founded by Karen Ng FRSA, is designed to inform, empower, and motivate kids to take actions on big challenges facing today’s world, such as poverty, inequality and climate change.

Get involved: if you are a subject matter expert in international development (poverty, global health, education), environmental conservation (climate change, renewable energy, sustainability), or social inequalities (racial, gender, social), and you are interested to contribute to the project by reviewing the book's content in Q1 2018, please email Karen for more details.

Little Big Changes recently launched the book on Kickstarter. This is the team’s first crowdfunding campaign, and it successfully reached its £6,000 funding goal within the first 48 hours. Over 200 backers, including venture capitalist Fred Wilson, have pledged to bring this project to life.

The book will include 100+ activities and ideas for kids to make the world a better place. It has a wide range of activities, including classic word puzzles, arts and crafts, science explorations and interactive projects, for example, children explore renewable energy by building a solar oven. Another activity demonstrates how to help reduce food waste by cooking with leftovers.

Karen, whose day job is working social impact investing to encourage more organisations and individuals to invest according to their values, shared her inspirations for starting this project. “We started this project because we felt the world could benefit from more global citizens: people who are aware of how the world works and have a sense of empathy and responsibility to make it a fairer and more sustainable place. We are overwhelmed by the level of support. This confirms our belief that there is a demand from parents and educators to find ways to actively engage children on these important topics.”