In 2019, the U.S. Department of State hosted its ninth annual Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (AEIF) project competition. AEIF supports alumni initiatives that promote shared values and innovative solutions to global challenges.
This year, out of more than 1,400 project submissions from 150 countries, 64 alumni teams representing 52 countries have been selected as Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund winners! These alumni-led projects will foster economic prosperity; build civic participation, good governance, and resilient communities; advance science, technology, health, and innovation; promote inclusion and educational opportunity; and, empower women and girls around the world.
AEIF 2019 Winners by Theme
Advancing Science, Technology, Health and Innovation
6 Winners
Bangladesh: Inquiry Based Learning to Promote Science Education will promote science education among students and teachers in ten schools throughout Bangladesh. The project includes training for students on scientific procedure, data gathering and analysis, and report writing. Forty teachers will design and implement active learning using locally available materials, resulting in a book of their resources and webinars to broaden the impact.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP), Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA))
Barbados: Girl Guides Strong: Towards 100% Renewables will educate members of the Girl Guides Association of Barbados (GGAB), aged 7-25, about renewable energy. Through innovative projects led by exchange alumni and GGAB leaders, girl guides, rangers and youth leaders will build on their understanding of environmental awareness through projects that will increase sustainability in their communities.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
North Macedonia: The InnoTech Club will teach North Macedonian youth about careers in advanced science, technology, and innovation. The InnoTech Club (ITC) will engage 1,000 people by connecting high school and university students with companies, investors, start-ups, and entrepreneurs in Skopje, Shtip, and Bitola.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, Professional Fellows Program)
Palestinian Territory: ENGeeks (Engineering Geeks) will provide 25 engineering graduates with the skills, knowledge, tools, equipment, and other resources for success in the workplace and their own businesses. Participants will “pay-it-forward” by designing an innovative STEM camp to promote different types of engineering programs and mentoring 75 first-year engineering students.
(Alumni team: English Access Microscholarship Program (Access))
South Sudan: Integrated STEM Education will inspire high school students to explore science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The project will boost global competitiveness by fostering STEM excellence and ensuring equal access to STEM education. The project will directly benefit a total of 300 high school students in Juba and Torit.
(Alumni team: YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Zambia: Stirring Steam for STEM (SSS) will advance STEM-related opportunities for three generations of women: girls in secondary school, female college students, and female small-scale farmers. Participants will gain new skills and knowledge through role modeling events, mentorship to strengthen scientific and leadership skills, professional shadowing experiences, and agribusiness trainings.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)
Building Civil Participation, Good Governance, and Resilient Communities
13 Winners
Bangladesh: Internet Safety and Security Literacy for School Children will strengthen media literacy and online safety and security among youth. The alumni team will host in-school training sessions for students, teachers, and parents on cyber safety, and work with students to create engaging video content for social media to educate others on media literacy. The team will also advance media literacy education on a national level by developing evidence-based recommendations.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI))
Bhutan: Promoting Mental Health, Preventing Suicide and Drug Abuse Among Youth will raise awareness about mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction among Bhutanese youth by training treatment providers, including healthcare practitioners, school counselors, and addiction counselors. Through social media campaigns, they aim to increase awareness about mental health and decrease the stigma and discrimination of people living with mental health disorders.
(Alumni team: Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program)
Costa Rica: Los Guachis: A Hyper-Local Newsroom Network for Local Government Accountability will develop a network of newsrooms covering local governments in three Costa Rican communities that are currently news deserts. Through this project, participants will investigate and publish news to inform citizens about the performance and accountability of local government. Citizens will be involved in designing and developing the project, thereby establishing a culture of public accountability.
(Alumni team: Professional Fellows Program)
Dominican Republic: GIS for Risks 2 will train 20 academic, civil society, and government risk management technicians on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing for disaster management. This initiative seeks to improve the capacity for rapid response to emergencies and natural disasters, and cultivate a cross-functional cohort for emergency response and disaster preparedness in the Dominican Republic.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Fulbright Program, Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI))
Egypt: Nile Smiles will improve oral healthcare among children living in disadvantaged rural and urban communities in Egypt through in-school health education sessions for children to learn about proper dental care. The team, in collaboration with dental professionals, will create and distribute an engaging booklet with illustrations about oral health and brushing techniques that will be used throughout the project.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Fulbright Program)
El Salvador: YANKWIK KAL: Innovative Community-Building through El Salvador-US Alumni Associations will inspire innovation through the first Ideathon, TEDx, and Alumni Engagement Lab. Through these platforms, alumni will propose low-cost, high-impact activities which will generate innovation through alumni-led initiatives.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Student Program, Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program, Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI))
Guinea: National Governance Marathon will strengthen good governance in 33 prefectures of Guinea. In a series of governance discussion groups involving alumni and communities, participants will be made aware of legal and digital tools available for promoting good governance and fighting corruption. The National Governance Marathon will culminate in a forum that will raise the conversation to a national level.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Mali: Community Peace Engineering will increase local ownership of the peace process and strengthen communities in the northern region of Gao against violence and extremist influence. The alumni team will utilize the arts, culture, and structured facilitated dialogue to build understanding and trust among the local population, government representatives, and traditional leaders. This inclusive approach to peace-building will encourage communities to identify solutions to local problems and help them to lead Mali towards peace
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Nigeria: Building Civic Participation and Good Governance in Plateau State will increase civic participation and strengthen the role of civil society in policy decisions in four communities in Plateau State vulnerable to violence and extremism. Activities will bring together local peace-building organizations, influential traditional leaders, youth and women groups, and the Divisional Police Offices to collaborate in decision-making and create a model for inclusive decision-making that will help guide other communities to build bridges between the local government and citizens.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Pakistan: The Next Generation of Journalists will train aspiring new and mid-career journalists through a six-month digital journalism program on audience, content, marketing, storytelling, reporting, and production. The alumni team strives to cultivate a new generation of skilled, unbiased, and trusted digital journalists throughout Pakistan.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Philippines: Bayanivation: Sparking Local Government Innovation in the Philippines will foster participatory governance across public sectors. Through design thinking workshops, a public policy design competition, and an innovation toolkit, Philippine public servants and youth will create and collaborate on innovative citizen-centered governance projects in public sectors.
(Alumni team: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI))
Poland: Democracy Cake: Promoting Youth Engagement Through Innovative Educational Tools will encourage civic participation among youth in Poland and Ukraine via an innovative educational tool – the “Democracy Cake” board game. The team will reach 50,000 beneficiaries by distributing 1,000 copies of the game to 250 institutions in each country. To encourage innovative use of the game, teachers will submit their civic education lesson plans for a chance to win copies of the game for their schools.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Thailand: Building a Transparent Thailand will launch a nation-wide, youth-led anti-corruption movement through a charity race and university-hosted anti-corruption workshops. In partnership with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) and Council of University Presidents of Thailand, alumni aim to create the largest youth anti-corruption group and increase public awareness and support for a more inclusive, transparent Thailand.
(Alumni team: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI))
Empowering Women and Girls
23 Winners
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Young Lionesses of Bosnia and Herzegovina will pair 30 young women from throughout the country with mentors from businesses, media outlets, civil society organizations, and government institutions through a cutting-edge online mentoring program. The program with create professional and personal connections that will strengthen leadership skills, community involvement, and self esteem.
(Alumni team: FORTUNE/State Dept. Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, Fulbright Programs, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Burma: Upcycling and Upskilling Women will develop the capacity of underprivileged women in four rural communities to start small businesses while addressing pollution concerns. Project goals include raising awareness of the effects of waste and pollution, educating communities about sustainability, and empowering local women to produce and market goods from upcycling initiatives.
(Alumni team: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI))
Burma: Women Lead will instill business and entrepreneurship skills in over 200 women located in vulnerable communities. The alumni team will conduct two-day workshops that will address the top challenges women face when launching businesses: idea generation, digital promotion, business management, financial planning, security, and gender equity. Following the workshops, the women will stay engaged through a women-in-business network and peer-to-peer mentoring.
(Alumni team: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI))
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Fostering Women Entrepreneurship will increase access to entrepreneurial resources for women across the DRC. Alumni and other experts will train emerging female entrepreneurs through a structured, long-term mentoring program to strengthen their existing business. The outcome will be increased gender equality through business development and employment.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Ethiopia: Establishing a Network of Legal Aid Organizations in Tigray will create a network of legal aid providers by connecting women’s groups across the Tigray region to legal aid organizations. Through this network, women can receive free legal aid from trained women paralegals within their local communities. The legal services will be facilitated by a telephone hotline, which will offer swift communication with all program stakeholders.
(Alumni team: Community Solutions Program, Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Germany: EQT: Gender Equality Toolkit will cultivate gender equality in the workplace by creating new tools from proven practices in the fields of design, social sciences, and innovation. The team will engage a broad audience using a card game, guidebook, and EQT toolkit designed to generate change-making conversation and solutions to workplace gender equality issues.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Student Program, Fulbright English Teaching Assistant)
Ghana: Promoting STEM Among Girls in Disadvantaged Communities in Ghana will provide teachers with lesson design skills for project-based learning, hands-on activities, improvisational lesson development, assessment techniques, and motivational strategies. Through this project, 200 girls will receive mentorship and education from teachers and professionals aimed at increasing their interest in and access to STEM subjects.
(Alumni team: International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP))
India: MOJO Girls: Developing Mobile Storytelling Skills Among Women will form Mobile Journalism (MOJO) storytellers in marginalized communities in Chennai. Using smartphones, 20 young women will produce fifty untold stories about women's empowerment by interviewing, researching, filming, and editing videos. The videos will be shown on social media and highlighted during a special gala event.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Fulbright Student Program)
Indonesia: Empowomen Forum: A Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Empowering Women in Lampung will tackle the issue of underrepresentation of women in public life. Building on existing initiatives by the program team, young professional women from the South Sumatra province of Lampung will engage in capacity-building activities, group discussion, lectures, workshops, panels, team-building activities, a project planning simulation, and networking sessions.
(Alumni team: Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI), Professional Fellow Program)
Kenya: Women in Countering Violent Extremism in Kenya's North Eastern Region will raise the conversation about radicalization and violent extremism (RVE), currently a taboo topic, in an effort to decrease radicalization and recruitment for violent extremist groups. The alumni team will train 180 women in how to detect early warning signs of RVE, develop alternative narratives, and foster religious tolerance and social inclusion.
(Alumni team: YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Malawi: Women Empowerment Through Tailored Business Management Training and Mentoring will empower 80 women to overcome socio-economic factors that are impeding their success in business. An “Ideas Factory” will provide them the tools, skills, and mentorship to identify business opportunities and create business ideas. The outcome will be competitive business plans that the participants can use to seek follow-on funding.
(Alumni team: YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Mali: Empowering Rural Women of Mali in Gold Artisanal Mining will improve health and economic conditions of women gold miners and influence policy reform of gold artisan mining in Mali. More than 500 women will receive best practices for reducing mercury and cyanide consumption while mining, improve ability to monitor their gold production, and ensure their sales are transparent and profitable. The project will further help the Malian government by engaging policy makers in workshops that will expose them to solutions for challenges facing the industry, including child labor, and new technologies and regulation that can transform artisanal mining and improve the local economy.
(Alumni team: Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC), Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)
Mozambique: Developing SRHR Community Champions will create champions and advocates for women and girls vulnerable to gender based violence by training women from rural communities in the delivery of women’s health awareness and advocacy techniques.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Niger: Girls for Girls (G4G): Second Edition will create a social network of 100 women and 100 girls through a mentorship program that includes seven rigorous sessions for mentee girls in a primary school in Tahoua. The program will strengthen the girls’ skills in decision making, negotiation, advocacy, and conflict management skills while reinforcing the notion of gender equality and equal rights.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Student Program, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Nigeria: Media Against Sexual Violence will prevent sexual violence (SV) and increase awareness by training 80 media practitioners, photo and news journalist, bloggers, and social media influencers, to change ‘rape culture’ to ‘consent culture.’ The incorporation of transmedia tools and methodology will sustain the messages for longer, across different audiences, using different mediums all connected to the same message of preventing sexual violence. The campaign will last one year during which beneficiaries will form a “Media Against Sexual Violence Alliance” to amplify the message.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Nigeria: Mobile Aid against Maternal and Infant Mortality (MAMI) is a mobile health literacy program to educate expectant mothers and families from underserved communities to access prompt, relevant, and customized information in their local language to make informed decisions about pre-natal health and help reduce infant mortality.
(Alumni team: TechWomen)
Peru: Women Can Do-Iquitos will empower 100 girls from public schools in Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, with information about accessing non-traditional careers for women in fields such as science, robotics, technology and entrepreneurship. Through conferences, hands-on workshops, coaching sessions, and an educational fair, the girls will develop their personal and leadership skills and gain access to educational opportunities.
(Alumni team: Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI), Professional Fellows Program, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
South Africa: Girlignite Africa Summits will empower young women in South Africa and Zimbabwe through a series of summits that will provide them with STEM skills. The summits will enhance employability and entrepreneurial aspirations, along with career coaching opportunities for young women on how to pursue educational opportunities in STEM fields.
(Alumni team: FORTUNE/State Dept. Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP); Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)
South Sudan: Unleashing Women’s Potential through Soccer in South Sudan will bring together women and girls for a football tournament to create a safe space for girls to talk about gender inequality and self esteem, while leadership skills and learning about their bodies and health.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Sudan: AMNA will implement an advocacy campaign to raise awareness of gender-based violence and train youth, including girls and boys, on gender equality and the roles they can play as agents of change in their local communities. Participants will be encouraged to form youth based community groups and join civil society organizations to take local action in support of a broader national online campaign promoting gender equality.
(Alumni team: Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI))
Tanzania: Empowering Young Women in Agribusiness will provide mentorship and training for 100 young women in agribusiness on sustainable food production, safety and quality control, and entrepreneurship. The program will increase food processing and job creation, thus leading to poverty reduction and increasing women's economic participation in Tanzania’s gross domestic production.
(Alumni team: Professional Fellows Program)
Fostering Economic Prosperity
7 Winners
Armenia: Creative Economies in Gyumri Smart Zone will strengthen the economic opportunities for women and youth by creating an inclusive, sustainable, and structured tourism destination. The alumni team will train beneficiaries to develop general business, marketing, and communications plans to run and promote their businesses, both locally and to tourists, and identify ways to make use of available resources requiring minimal investment.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD), Edmund Muskie Graduate Fellowship/PhD Program)
Azerbaijan: Empower Women in Sustainable Economic Growth (EWSEG) will support the development of Azerbaijan’s tourist industry by equipping women with the basic concepts of entrepreneurship and small business management. EWSEG aims to bolster the fledgling ecotourism industry while giving women the tools to support themselves in a region where opportunities are limited.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Edmund Muskie Graduate Fellowship/PhD Program, Professional Fellows Program)
Cape Verde: Startup Acceler8 Program will cultivate entrepreneurial and leadership skills through a locally generated business development program for approximately 40 aspiring entrepreneurs. Participants will launch a successful Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that they will pitch to investors and a larger entrepreneurial community to gain access to a business ecosystem. This project strives to launch at least 20 businesses that will create local employment opportunities for youth, helping the direct beneficiaries, and local economies in two islands, Maio and Sao Vicente, currently underrepresented in Cabo Verde’s entrepreneurial sector.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC))
Greece: Student Entrepreneurship Connecting the Balkans will support youth entrepreneurship in the Balkans by expanding the Mindspace entrepreneurship hubs in Greece and replicating in North Macedonia. Mindspace’s programs establish links between academic research and the market, promote university as a space that nurtures skills and ideas, and equip students with valuable life-skills, while supporting the economic development of the countries as a whole.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVPL), Fulbright Student Program)
Ghana: Sustainable Technologies for Entrepreneurial Projects (STEPs): Young Innovators will equip eight young entrepreneurs with the skills broaden socio-economic growth by promoting and increasing self-initiated and sustainable employment opportunities. The youth-led project will incorporate technology to address social challenges in the central region of Ghana, such as poor sanitation, underdeveloped tourism and culture, poor agribusiness environment, and the delivery of quality healthcare.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program)
Morocco: Alumni Entrepreneurship Boot Camp will empower 30 young exchange alumni across Morocco through a five-day intensive training program on social entrepreneurship. Participants will learn project development, entrepreneurship, business marketing, and personal development while collaborating on innovative business ideas.
(Alumni team: Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI))
Sri Lanka: Youth Entrepreneurship Sustainability Hub (YES HUB) equips unemployed and underemployed youth with the skills and networks to thrive in a technology-driven economy. The YES HUB will offer training including: ideation sessions, entrepreneurship skills, practical business plan preparation; and, green technology and environmental consciousness.
(Alumni team: Community Solutions Program, Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program)
Promoting Inclusion and Educational Opportunity
15 Winners
Australia: Co-Designing and Empowering Indigenous Australian High-Schoolers through Data Science will provide indigenous high school students in remote areas with innovative educational tools to strengthen data science knowledge and applicable skills. These resources will be co-designed through meaningful and sustained engagement between community elders, high school educators, and university academics to ensure that the program addresses the societal, linguistic and health factors that affect indigenous Australians.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Programs)
Belarus: Inclusive Maternity: Promoting Birth-Giving Inclusion in Belarus will promote equal access to obstetric and maternity care for women with disabilities, many of whom face social stigma and discrimination when contemplating and experiencing pregnancy. In addition to multiple media channels, training courses, round table discussions, and workshops, the alumni team will utilize innovative and advanced methods in counselling and childcare to help current and expectant mothers with disabilities. The initiative will rely on multipliers in local government and in NGOs around Belarus to spread knowledge and increase awareness of the general population about this overlooked problem.
(Alumni team: USAID Exchange)
Chile: Role Models for Under-Represented Groups Pursuing Higher Education will engage positive role models to inspire underserved public high school students to pursue future educational and occupational opportunities. The target audience of 500 students from three regions will receive mentoring from influential voices in academia and experts. This project will result in a best practices guide for use in Chilean public high schools to engage role models for bolstering student self-improvement.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Programs)
Georgia: STEM Saturday School for Displaced High School Students will train 180 IDP youth from the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions on robotics, programming, and other STEM subjects. Through interactive lessons, participants will create their own projects under the team members’ mentorship. The goal of this project is to spark displaced youth’s interest in STEM subjects and launch the “STEM Is Easy and Fun!” campaign where they can share their knowledge with other underrepresented communities.
(Alumni team: Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX), WiSci (Women in Science) Girls STEAM Camp)
Jamaica: Community Mental Health First Responders Sensitization and Training Project will utilize a social engagement and participatory approach to mental health education across local communities. Alumni will impart a series of workshops and training courses to educate participants on the topic of mental health and produce a cadre of community mental health first responders.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Project (IVLP))
Kenya: North-Rift Women in STEM Inclusion Project will organize 15 STEM boot camps for 450 underprivileged women and girls in the North Rift Region. The project will teach practical skills, including coding and accessing jobs in the digital economy. The top 30 participants evaluated during the boot camps will be awarded a year-long follow-on mentorship program providing advanced programming skills and entrepreneurship lessons.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, TechWomen, Fulbright Programs)
Kyrgyz Republic: TechAim will offer young girls and women the opportunity to participate in an intensive boot camp to learn new approaches and practices in STEM. This educational project will create a network of women in STEM and assist in developing skills in business, leadership, personal branding, and project management. Participants will also receive two weeks of online mentoring and internship opportunities.
(Alumni team: TechWomen)
Morocco: The Olive Writers Program will create a community of young writers who understand the importance of imagination and the written word in bridging the distance between people and fostering meaningful communication and mutual understanding among citizens and the wider world. The program includes a writing camp, writing workshops, a creative writing club, a youth literary magazine, and a Young Writers Award.
(Alumni team: International Writing Program (IWP), Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI), Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD))
Nicaragua: Expanding Educational Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Children will teach English and basic computer skills to 150 underprivileged children from public primary schools in Matagalpa. The alumni team will use teaching methods such as the communicative approach to develop participants’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. This project will prepare children for educational and economic opportunities to have better lives and improve their communities.
(Alumni team: Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI), Fulbright Program, Peace Corps)
Panama: Building Future Innovators and STEM Entrepreneurs will engage 200 female students in creating innovative solutions to daily problems with the mentoring of professionals and university students, all in entrepreneurship and STEM fields. This project will empower girls who attend public high schools located in high-risk communities through soft skills training and mentorship to increase their productivity and problem solving abilities.
(Alumni team: Fulbright Programs)
Sierra Leone: KidsABILITY Project Sierra Leone will facilitate the educational integration of more than 50 children with disabilities. Through a specialized workshop, the project will showcase the abilities and creativity of persons with disabilities and positively influence the behavior of family members, care-givers, and community members. A school will be designated to take the lead on follow-on engagement to train 20 teachers in sign language, develop inclusive education teaching methodology, and influence policy-makers within the education sector.
(Alumni team: YALI Regional Leadership Center (RLC), Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)
South Africa: Mirror Me for Literacy will improve early childhood literacy, stimulate creativity, and foster teamwork among 1,800 children through 75 writing clubs across ten rural and township schools in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Trained facilitators will use the IREX Bloom software and curriculum to help the children write stories in their home language and illustrate with scenes that mirror their own world and contexts.
(Alumni team: Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders)
Uganda: Improving Air Quality in Schools through Proper Waste Management will work with up to 24 local elementary schools in Kampala to educate children on air quality issues and how it impacts health. The project will use air quality capture and testing methods to teach children about STEM and environmental issues while also generating useful data on air quality in educational spaces in Kampala.
(Alumni team: International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP))
Vietnam: Youth Connected for Clean Air Network (YCCA) will inspire and empower local students, engage experts and professionals, and mobilize the local community to address air pollution and environmental health issues in Ho Chi Minh City. The project includes a public awareness campaign, intensive training workshops on environmental science and STEM, and project management skills. The team will develop an incubation/mentorship training series and a mini grant competition for youth-led projects.
(Alumni team: Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI), Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGRAD))
Yemen: YEMEN READS will promote daily reading among youth, to help build a generation of readers and learners and spark a community dialogue that cultivates new ideas and effective strategies for promoting reading as a fundamental activity in Yemen. The alumni team will host book donation drives and construct mobile libraries to motivate and encourage youth to become avid readers, develop their critical and analytical thinking skills, and provide an opportunity to learn and explore other cultures. The team will also lead a campaign to urge local governments to open a library in every school across the country.
(Alumni team: Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI))