Congratulations to Claire, Chloe, Alina and Chuqi from Grade 8 for winning the gold medal at the 2022 Public Benefit International Challenge (PBIC) for Youth in Beijing with their student club-initiated anti-malaria project “Stop M2M Action”.

PBIC was established in 2017 to promote exchanges between Middle and High School students in China and Africa by using hands-on and creative means to tackle social issues. It also encourages students to actively engage with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This year’s PBIC focused on improving health, wellbeing and gender equality.

The students are part of a club called Hidden Power, which initiated Stop M2M Action. The aim of the project is to raise funds to purchase mosquito control and repellent equipment and donate to 26 public primary schools in Uganda to prevent the spread of malaria. Hidden Power has succeeded in raising over 190,000 RMB so far, and plan to use these funds to support 20,000 students and families over the next five years.

The project impressed the judges. Hidden Power’s project was chosen from a total of ten finalists, and in August the students were invited to take part in an online ceremony to celebrate their win.

The 2022 PBIC may have concluded, but WAB’s students are only just getting started!

“The end of the PBIC competition is only the start of our “five-year journey”. We plan to inspire more people to participate, discover more innovative methods, connect with the local education bureau, expand our reach to more targeted schools, and cooperate with domestic non-profit organizations,” said Claire from Grade 7.

Their plan for this year is to implement their project, purchase anti-mosquito products, and seek support to ship the products to local schools. Next year they plan to deliver the products to the rest of the four schools they have chosen. They also wish to establish a student service club at school, promote their initiative and encourage more students to join the force.

“The four of us are not just participants who are in Hidden Power, there are way more people supporting us and giving us feedback to make us successful. Our five-year long-term plan is to influence varieties of students and teenagers to join Hidden Power and STOP M2M ACTION. Please join us in the relay of love,” said Chloe from Grade 7.

Not only did this project allow the students to make a tangible difference in the world, it also brought academic benefits:

“After working on this project, we learned how to negotiate with big corporates to promote our initiative,” said Chuqi. “And we improved our presentation skills,” Alina added.

“As eighth graders, we might appear to be limited in resources, power, and have insufficient knowledge, we know one thing for sure: we only have this one planet for us all to live on. We know that we have limited abilities and can’t help everyone. But we firmly believe that everyone can help someone. The beauty of the SDGs is that each contribution made by people worldwide, no matter big or small, matters,” said Claire.

Watch this amazing video by Hidden Power about their Stop M2M Action project below: