GoMakeADifference Announces 2023 Awards
$30,000 is being awarded to thirty teams of UWC students who have been successful in this year’s GoMakeADifference applications.
Fifty-eight applications were submitted, offering innovative ideas from students across the UWC network as to how they hope to make a difference.
More students than ever submitted videos with their application which really helped to bring the ideas to life. The panel assessing the applications use the pre-determined criteria, which covers how much personal challenge, the level of impact and sustainability the project is likely to have and how much the project allows students to live the UWC mission and values.
This year will see interesting projects being delivered in Africa (Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Niger, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe) in the Americas (Peru, USA), in Asia (Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand,) in Europe (The Netherlands, The Faroe Islands and Wales) and in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq).
Over the twenty two years of providing the awards, there have been some fantastic projects delivered and this year was no exception. The team were once again pleased to see the variety across the diverse projects with some using a high level of technology as part of the project delivery.
One successful project aimed at promoting human rights to the Faroese youth
As Jill Longson (AC’81) and co-founder commented, “We have been delighted with the response we have received this year. The number of different, innovative ideas we received leaves me in no doubt the values of Kurt Hahn and UWC are alive and well across our network. We loved seeing the videos from students accompanying many of the applications, which really brought the ideas to life. As always, students gave the team a hard task in assessing the applications. So many projects had some fantastic ideas as to how students hoped to make a difference and were submitted with well-thought through plans.”
Students from fifteen Schools/Colleges are receiving grants and once again we are pleased to see some projects have students working together from different UWC’s. Special congratulations this year to UWC Atlantic, who have gained five successful awards which is a fantastic achievement.
The GoMakeADifference team, would like to thank and acknowledge the help we receive from the UWC Schools and Colleges in helping us to promote the awards, motivate and guide students into submitting their project plans.
2023 Successful Projects
Projects were successful where students submitted innovative, well-thought through plans, which provided a level of personal challenge and sustainability and a likelihood to succeed. Thank you to everyone who applied. Successful projects covered issues around healthcare, agriculture, water and waste, education and the environment.
Some key highlights of projects awarded this year includes:
This project aims to develop artificial intelligence to monitor and analyse food waste being thrown away
- Developing an app which through music aims to facilitate communication for the less able in the community;
- Delivering a mental health awareness camp;
- Providing a micro-farming project with a sustainable approach;
- Supporting the human rights and education of indigenous people;
- Raising awareness of health and environment issues through education programmes;
- Installing clean cooking stoves;
- Reducing waste including developing an artificial intelligence programme to monitor and analyse food waste to better inform suppliers;
- Constructing a study hall and sustainable water systems;
- Conserving and protecting the Sumatran Tiger;
- Producing sustainable fashion;
- Developing an artificial intelligence programme to help address the challenges faced by deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals;
- Helping to tackle the technological constraints in education of young students.
Colin Habgood (co-founder) assessing the GoMakeADifference 2023 project applications commented,
“We review every application carefully and consider each project against our criteria. It is a time-consuming task to review each application especially with so many and such diverse projects.
“We always enjoy reading the applications and this year have been really inspired by the innovative ideas and the use of technology to help UWC students make a difference. Unfortunately, not every project can be successful, but we thank all students for applying and hope that somehow by developing their idea into a project plan, students can use this to provide a catalyst which may allow them to somehow still deliver their plan”.
Take a look
For full details about the projects projects awarded and those which have been delivered in previous years, please visit https://www.gomakeadifference.global/projects-awarded/2023-awards/.