The Stoplight Olympics held for the first time in virtual format, its sixth edition in 2020. The initiative is aimed at educational institutions throughout the country and is part of the Poverty Stoplight methodology.

This pandemic changed all plans, and prompted the organization to reinvent itself, proposing a totally virtual format, where participants had a service desk and a mobile app to access the challenges posed, in addition to receiving instructions from the Entrepreneurial Education team of Fundación Paraguaya.

The protagonists were high school students, who conducted a survey on the current situation of their families, to then implement good practices and attitudes that allow generating habits and positive behavior changes to overcome their vulnerabilities and those of their community. The initiative had the support of the MEC (Ministry of Education and Sciences) and MADES (Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development).

The teams consisted of 15 to 20 students, with a captain or leader, plus a teacher as group manager. More than 40,000 young people from all over the country have participated in the Stoplight Olympics in recent years.

This year, the winners were: In the individual category, the Colegio Nacional de Capiatá (Capiatá – Central) obtained the first place; and in second place was the Colegio Nacional República de México (Itauguá – Central). In the group category, the first place went to the Colegio Parroquial Subvencionado Nuestra Señora de la Paz  (Boquerón – Chaco), and the second place went to the Centro Regional de Educación, Mariscal Francisco Solano López (Ñeembucú – Pilar).

Winners receive a cash prize. “There is no other competition in the world that positions young people as the protagonists on the way out of poverty for their families and community,” says Martin Burt, promoter of the Stoplight Olympics.