São Paulo – University of Brasília students Thais Queiroz, Guilherme Ávila and João Sigora are representing Brazil in the regional finals of the Hult Prize, a social entrepreneurship contest, on the 13th and 14th of this month in Dubai.
The team’s project, a low-cost magic kit to assist in the education of poor children, has won a spot in the regional finals. The winning team will get US$ 1 million to develop their project. The Hult Prize is sponsored by former United States president Bill Clinton’s organization, the Clinton Global Initiative.
But they lacked the funds to travel. As previously reported by ANBA, the group was seeking sponsors for its trip to the United Arab Emirates. The sponsors came through, and now they are getting ready to go.
“Travel and lodging costs will be met by the Federation of Industries of the Federal District (Fibra),” said Queiroz, the holder of a PhD in International Relations and captain of the team. The group also has financial backing from Curso Pódion and Instituto Sabin. The magic kit they’ve come up with features tricks to help kids learn to count and stimulate their visual function, for instance.
“We used the cash to hire a design studio to create the product, manual, prototype and logo, buy the material and hire a pedagogue to help us out,” Queiroz said regarding the sponsorship money supplied by other companies.
The Halt Prize comprises regional contests in five cities around the world: Boston, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Dubai. The winners in each locality compete in the world finals in New York.
“We are working really hard. We’ve invested much of our time in finding the means to go [to Dubai],” Queiroz explained. She said the team drafted a project portfolio and showed it to different companies in order to find sponsors. The prototype of the magic kit is already being printed out. “We’ve tested the magic tricks with the kids and they’ve really liked it,” said the team’s captain.
Expectations for the finals are positive. “We’ve done our best. We are trying to meet the requirements with a product that offers both quality and educational content to the children. We’re happy to be able to represent Brazil,” said Queiroz.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
