MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

From Junior Citizen to Young Productive Citizen

One-line solution summary.

As Junior Citizen I look forward to establish a team and encourage others about a healthy lifestyle through agriculture and sports.

Elevator pitch

What is your solution?

Combining agriculture with sports is essential to enhance the quality of life, decrease obesity, support a healthy lifestyle (especially during covid-19), add value to mental health and learning achievements. This solution also teach the Junior Citizens who reside in less fortunate areas to be encouraged to give back to their community.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

From what I have witnessed, people in less fortunate areas often tend to focus on ways to receive instead of using their creativity to find ways to also give back to their community. Another potential problem is that the generation thereafter follows the same habits which cause a reoccurring cycle.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The target population whose lives I am working to directly and meaningful improve are the GenZ. Volunteering and ways to give back to the community will help the upcoming generations to understand the value of empathy, to show kindness, compassion, selflessness and other life skills. At the same time, volunteering helps the youth gain leadership skills, and enhance in decision making and communication skills. All these skills obtained will eventually be necessary for the job market.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

Yes, I have done research with a non-profit organization O.K.E TVonline in which I am actively involved for 3+ consecutive years. I have been involved as a leader and have seen over 1000's lives of children, youths, and families being positively impacted as a result of voluntary work. The financial instability is often a reason why youngsters loose hope in their own potential. While many may have the potential, due to a lack of finances their initiative can not be executed. As a Young Productive Citizen I combine effort with others to execute activities such as these. I take responsibilities in order to serve the community. I consider myself a leader of the 21 century and therefore commit to execute the activity to the best of my ability. I like to emphasize the importance of being productive. Being a citizen, doesn’t make you productive if you don’t set goals in life. Therefore Young Productive Citizens are simply a team of youngsters who are willing to contribute for betterment of their community. Not only are we being coached/mentored, we develop skills through practical/ hands-on activities. Life is a cycle where generations pass on their wisdom and knowledge obtained to those who are willing to follow.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving learning opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifetimes, from early childhood on (Learning)

Our solution's stage of development:

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in at least one community, which is poised for further growth

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

As an early advanced learner, I was granted the opportunity to use my expertise during these pilot programs in District Para - Suriname - South America which is currently the location that I have been granted for the pilot. However, I would like to expand my activities in this current location but also in others so that the participant can share their knowledge from their communities, learn from each other, and create a network of young productive citizens. Eventually, by use of technology, an e-society can be established for easy, fast and safe interactions. Up to now, there are 30 youngsters actively participating and about 200 youngsters pending approval.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Lelydorp, Suriname

Team Lead:

Cecilia Mo'Neesha Khan