School desks from plastic waste: Mozambique's young builders win Africa's STEM challenge

In Cape Town, four high-school teams from Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Nigeria showed working fixes for everyday problems — floodwater storage for dry months, a solar-and-water smart grid, and an AI soil tester for farmers. The winners, Team Mentes Brilhantes from Mozambique, turn recovered plastic mixed with discarded sawdust into school desks and chairs that resist water and termites — tackling two problems at once in a country short of both furniture and waste collection.

SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: institutional program