#MoveBrainSaveEarth
A KINDERENERGY educational initiative for young people.
Elisabeth Anne Delgado - January 8, 2025
Introduction
Bringing the topic of development economics into the classroom
Kinderenergy promotes children as Earth's most important natural resource. They have the brains and compassion necessary to propel the world to global peace and prosperity but, in order for kids to reach their potential and move out of poverty, they need to stay in school as long as possible to grow in knowledge and skills. That sounds like a simple idea yet so many children living in very rural areas of the Global South confront a myriad of barriers at their schools, which makes studying and staying in school almost impossible.
Kinderenergy's #MoveBrainSaveEarth is an educational initiative that teaches middle and high students in the USA & the EU how education is tied to economic development. This initiative inspires these kids to take a pro-active, design thinking approach to executing real solutions that remove serious barriers to learning that children suffer daily at rural schools around the world. Some of the greatest threats to the education of children in the developing world are due to the lack of food, water and sanitation at schools. How difficult it is to stay in school if those basic needs are not met. If there is no food or clean drinking water at school, who can study?
Finding Purpose Through Empathy and Responsibility
Through the #MoveBrainSaveEarth educational initiative, US students learn how education moves people out of poverty and how the design of smart WASH + initiatives at rural schools, such as traditional farming of nutritious foods (potatoes, legumes, greens, fruits and nuts) and projects such as raising chickens for consumption and sale, can improve school attendance, alleviate hunger, increase protein intake, improve the academic performance of children over the school year, and teach simple entrepreneurship skills, and ultimately propel economic development in their villages and countries. Teaching US & EU students about the value of education and the importance of a healthy diet at school also helps them understand why nutritious food is crucial for their own overall health, brain development and cognition. Seeing the problems rural children in the developing world face daily at school,
#MoveBrainSaveEarth inspires students to open their eyes, ignite compassion, roll up their sleeves, strategize, design, fund and execute solutions so others can stay in school. Food security projects are accompanied by water and sanitation projects where needed. All projects in the developing world include skill development and entrepreneurship training.
Purpose & emotional intelligence - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lady-gaga-yalecenteremotional-intelligence-partner-teens-delgado/
When looking at problems at very rural schools in Africa and Asia, the #MoveBrainSaveEarth initiative offers a holistic and hands on approach to helping rural children and youth stay in school and later move out of poverty. Projects help students in developing countries grow crops and raise animals at school and not wait for others to send money for food. We help them plant the best foods for improved health of brain and body. Big questions such as which foods should they plant in a given climate and why are answered.
Tech4Good: Using computers or mobile phones, #MoveBrainSaveEarth middle and high school students in the USA research and fund simple agricultural and farming projects that are meant to increase the nutritional intake of children across the globe, promote agricultural techniques and teach entrepreneurship and skill development for the purpose of helping the poorest children stay in school, learn business skills such as raising chickens, selling eggs and cutting hair. In the process the US kids also learn about diet and the importance of agriculture and farming as a needed and worthy profession for every country.
Ultimately, what the US students experience is purpose and "circular impact". As the US kids mobilize to help their peers in the developing world plant the right foods to feed a hungry brain, they themselves learn about the positive impact a good and healthy diet has on the brain and body, and why supporting agriculture and farming as a national policy improves food security, conserves our resources, mitigates the impacts of poverty, and promotes a healthy planet for future generations. They experience a deep happiness that only comes from the giving of oneself.
Simple WASH + nutritious food projects supporting vegetable, fruit and grain (maize) planting and chicken raising have been completed by US & EU high school students for children in Cambodia, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the DRC. Schools in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Portugal will begin #MoveBrainSaveEarth projects in Fall 2025. Those projects are then presented to the international community at the UN Headquarters in NYC every July at the High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
Working on a problem for others helps improve test scores at home.
Much effort is being made to increase the academic competence of our students at home, inspire a greater number to enter STEM fields and to stop the downhill trend in overall academic performance of students on an international scale.1 #MoveBrainSaveEarth will improve math skills, bolster a students interest in international business, engineering, development economics and global health, to name just a few. In addition, it will raise selfesteem, teach empathy and encourage them to think of simple yet effective ways to help People & Planet. Let’s get to work and help them propel change!
1”PISA Scores Are Down For US Students”
https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=USA&treshold=10&topic=PI
Understandably, the problems facing the US educational system are worrisome however, we must not lose sight of the fact that students are eager to learn, full of innovative ideas, show a keen interest in helping others in need and, are enormously talented and creative when it comes to solving problems. #MoveBrainSaveEarth combines teaching empathy, volunteerism, international relations, global health and technology to stimulate interest in international development work and philanthropy.
Partner With Us!
“2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and about 3.6 billion people do not have access to safely managed sanitation”, according to the 2023 UN World Water Development Report. Given that access to potable water for drinking, and clean, functioning toilets and hand washing stations for good hygiene are also essential to keep children healthy and able to learn”, we all have a lot to do to help kids stay in school as long as possible.
Kinderenergy continues to look to corporations, financial institutions, local businesses and private citizens for financial support of the funding goals of middle and high school projects and, to cover administrative costs. These generous funds will help us continue our work in highlighting the magnificence of children and the importance of education as the most significant driver of economic prosperity and global peace.
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More About Kinderenergy
Kinderenergy is a California based 501c3 environmental charity born in Moraga, California that builds awareness that children are Earth’s most important natural resource. Children and youth possess the necessary brainpower (intelligent energy) to provide innovative solutions to Earth’s social and environmental problems. Its founder, Elisabeth Anne Delgado conceived the idea of Kinderenergy during a sabbatical year at her Alma Mater at UC Berkeley, in 2009.
Kinderenergy was initiated into the Social Media world at Stanford University by two undergraduates during the Stanford’s Social-M Blitz Bazaar in 2010. Kinderenergy educates children of
all ages to be excellent stewards of Earth’s natural and social environment. With #MoveBrainSaveEarth, Kinderenergy aims to prove how important and capable children & youth are in building a better world. We are now helping schools in India, Tanzania, Uganda, Cambodia & Burundi.
Kinderenergy was granted Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2013. It also has “Observer Status” with the UNFCCC in Bonn. In June 2017 during the UN Ocean Conference, children between the ages of 5-12 marched into the UN to speak about why they were important for the environment and what they were doing daily to help people, clean oceans and beautify planet Earth. It was a huge success.
The main objective of Kinderenergy’s #MoveBrainSaveEarth initiative is to harness the imaginative, creative and compassionate energy of children to pull fellow peers, living across the globe, out of poverty. As a result, we show middle and high school students the amazing life changing impact they can have on the lives of other students, through their own individual efforts and, with partners. #MoveBrainSaveEarth helps each student connect compassion, will and intelligence for the good of others. These projects are amazing because they are being done by kids!
Kinderenergy is currently working with Masters students at Columbia University Technology Management Studies to /design/develop a user friendly APP for #MoveBrainSaveEarth.
Kinderenergy's initiative became a K-12 Category Finalist at the 2016 UPenn/Wharton School of Business/SEI Center For Advanced Management-Reimagine Education Awards.
#MoveBrainSaveEarth was featured in The Economist Magazine: https://foodsustainability-cms.eiu.com/international-youth-day-young-people-delivering-foodsustainability/
For more information about Kinderenergy and #MoveBrainSaveEarth email us at elisabethanne@kinderenergy.org
Kinderenergy is a 501(c)(3) organization. Gifts are deductible to the full extent allowable under IRS regulations. Tax exempt in NY & CA.