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    Emil Lazarian
  • 2 years ago
    • Categories: 2022

The next cycle of Young Aurora now open

Public Radio of Armenia
May 12 2022
May 12, 2022, 11:02
 

Aurora is delighted to announce that the next cycle of Young Aurora is now open. Presented by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in partnership with the United World Colleges (UWC) and with the participation of Teach for All and the African Leadership Academy (ALA), this annual competition provides student teams from UWC and ALA with an opportunity to enter project proposals that tackle pressing humanitarian issues affecting their school communities.

All proposals are evaluated according to their level of creativity, sustainability, quality of research and potential for impact. Three finalists are then chosen to present their ideas and plans to a panel of highly accomplished humanitarians, entrepreneurs, and world leaders for the chance to win a $4,000 grant towards the further development of their project. All participating teams also benefit from personalized feedback and support to help refine and further develop their project plans.

Since 2017, Young Aurora has helped many student projects create a positive and long-lasting impact in their local school communities. Last year’s winners, students from Waterford Kamhlaba UWC of Southern Africa, are working in eSwatini to deliver their Seed of Hope project, designed to empower young people at Malindza refugee camp through the creation of a youth hub, serving as both an online education center and social space. Despite ongoing civil unrest in eSwatini, the Seed of Hope team impressed the judges with their unwavering commitment to improving the lives of refugees. They have since expressed the gratitude they feel for being able to bring such a project to life:

“We are extremely grateful to Young Aurora for enabling us to have hands-on experience of engaging in and positively transforming this community. Without this prize, our enthusiasm and commitment to change the lives of hundreds of young refugees would have remained just a dream, rather than a reality,” said Seed of Hope team member Prince Bashangezi (Democratic Republic of the Congo, WK UWCSA, 2020-2022).

Previous winning projects have included Beehive Divide (2020) from a team of students from UWC East Africa who constructed a beehive fence to address the human-elephant conflict in Sanya Hoyee village, Tanzania. There have also been many notable runners-up, such as Amaavasya (2018), which continues to enable women in Maharashtra, India, to engage in taboo-breaking conversations around the stigma of menstruation. 

With varying COVID-19 restrictions still affecting some school campuses, this year’s program will remain online to encourage maximum participation. Aurora and its partners cannot wait to see what kinds of innovative and creative projects the UWC and ALA students will put forward this year.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS