We are pleased to announce that the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative has broadened the range of its projects by launching the new Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC Schools and Colleges.

The Project aims to encourage current students from across all UWC schools and colleges to set up or further develop service projects that address a humanitarian issue either in the proximity of or with specific relevance to their UWC school or college. The Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC will recognize projects with meaningful impact – and provide the winner with a financial grant for the project’s further development.

The Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC Schools and Colleges is one of several programmes created and supported by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, which aims to raise public awareness and address some of the world’s most pressing humanitarian issues. These projects include the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, the Aurora Dialogues, the Aurora Humanitarian Index, the Gratitude Projects and the 100 LIVES Initiative. In April 2016, George Clooney, Co-Chair of the Aurora Prize Selection Committee and the Co-Founder of the Not On Our Watch humanitarian initiative, visited UWC Dilijan as part of a weekend-long series of events held in Armenia. 
 

As Veronika Zonabend, the founder of UWC Dilijan, said: “We have established the Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC to encourage students from across the UWC schools and colleges to engage with humanitarian issues and to enquire how they can make a tangible impact on problems people and communities face. We want to inspire students to join forces and pro-actively include the expertise from UWC alumni, to come up with creative, sustainable and concrete projects contributing to a better and more humane future".

The Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC does not only involve students and staff members, but it also calls for the participation of one UWC alum per team, who will assist the project as an advisor with regards to a specific skill or expertise he or she can add, further strengthening the collaboration between current and former UWC students.

"The Aurora Humanitarian Project for UWC is another cornerstone in driving the UWC movement’s strategy of students and alumni living the UWC mission of making education a force for peace and sustainability. With the humanitarian projects of our students and alumni we become advocates of peace in a very real and practical way - this is what UWC is all about”, stressed Jens Waltermann, Executive Director of UWC International.

Each project will be evaluated based on its creativity (how does it address a humanitarian concern in a manner which demonstrates new, innovative and "out of the box" approaches?), sustainability (how sustainable is it set up to be?), quality of research (how well does the research address and seek to understand the reasons for the existence of the humanitarian concern?), impact (what are its anticipated impact and long-term result?), commitment (how do the members of the project team demonstrate selflessness in the creation of the project and in their implementation intentions and actions?), and self-reflection (how well do the members of the project team reflect on their own role and challenges in setting up and implementing the project?). The three finalist project teams will be invited to attend the ceremony of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity in Yerevan, Armenia, on May 28, 2017, when the winning project will be announced and awarded €4,000 towards its further development and funding. 

All 16 UWC schools and colleges have confirmed their participation to the initiative and we are looking forward to receiving their submitted projects in January 2017.