Two Wartburg College student-led projects have each received $10,000 Davis Projects for Peace grants.
Sophomore Collins Kalyebi will return to Uganda where he will help reduce crowding at two local primary schools and secure quality sanitary pads for young women. Sophomore Saffa Bockarie Jr. will partner with the Jeneba Project to provide clean water for the community of Robis in Sierra Leone.
Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis founded Davis Projects for Peace in 2007 to celebrate her 100th birthday. Davis, who died in 2013, committed $1 million annually to fund 100 grass-roots efforts by college students. Wartburg students have received a grant every year since the program’s inception. This is the third time Wartburg has received funding for two projects.
Classrooms and Pads: An Opportunity for Her
Though schools in Uganda are free, they are crowded, and families must pay between $8 and $15 per month per child for study materials, a cost that is out of reach for many Ugandans who live on less than $2 a day. When families are unable to pay, it is often the daughters whose educations are cut short. That problem is intensified when young women reach puberty and lack access to sanitary menstrual products.
With the help of the Projects for Peace funding, Kalyebi will construct a four-classroom block at Heritage Prime Academy, a community school he founded to extend quality education to those in rural communities.
“The project will also incorporate educational campaigns about the importance of girls’ education in the attempt to dissolve local cultural perceptions that suggest parents pay less attention to girls’ education in favor of their boys’ needs,” Kalyebi said.
Through a partnership with Tirinyi Health Center, he will provide reusable sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene management kits to 1,000 students.
“As much as peace means to resolve conflicts without violence, it also means fair and equal access to basic needs and equal opportunities regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or any other form of identity that can easily be used as a form of discrimination,” Kalyebi said. “It’s from this understanding of peace, beyond just the absence of violence or conflict, that we believe this project supports not only girl childhood education, but also helps in building a strong community that stands on values of economic, social and political equity.”
Water Well for Peace and Sustainability
Bockarie will work with a team in Sierra Leone to construct a water well for the Excellence Academy, a secondary school in Robis. The community, with a population of about 1,000, is dependent on a small, nearby creek for all water needed for drinking, cooking, laundry and bathing.
He will partner with Joseph Kaifala, founder of the Jeneba Project and one of the original 100 Projects for Peace awardees, to construct the well. The two believe providing clean water will help improve education in the community because families won’t have to walk as far for potable water and won’t be subjected to as many water-borne illnesses.
“As an aspiring engineer from Sierra Leone with a goal of specializing in energy and resources and sustainable engineering, this award will help me to further build my skills,” Bockarie said. “Implementing this project will be a starting manifestation of the technical skills Wartburg engineering is instilling in me. In the long term, my vision is that all school-going children have equitable access to fresh water in their schools and communities.”
Sophomore Collins Kalyebi will return to Uganda where he will help reduce crowding at two local primary schools and secure quality sanitary pads for young women. Sophomore Saffa Bockarie Jr. will partner with the Jeneba Project to provide clean water for the community of Robis in Sierra Leone.
Philanthropist Kathryn Wasserman Davis founded Davis Projects for Peace in 2007 to celebrate her 100th birthday. Davis, who died in 2013, committed $1 million annually to fund 100 grass-roots efforts by college students. Wartburg students have received a grant every year since the program’s inception. This is the third time Wartburg has received funding for two projects.
Classrooms and Pads: An Opportunity for Her
Though schools in Uganda are free, they are crowded, and families must pay between $8 and $15 per month per child for study materials, a cost that is out of reach for many Ugandans who live on less than $2 a day. When families are unable to pay, it is often the daughters whose educations are cut short. That problem is intensified when young women reach puberty and lack access to sanitary menstrual products.
With the help of the Projects for Peace funding, Kalyebi will construct a four-classroom block at Heritage Prime Academy, a community school he founded to extend quality education to those in rural communities.
“The project will also incorporate educational campaigns about the importance of girls’ education in the attempt to dissolve local cultural perceptions that suggest parents pay less attention to girls’ education in favor of their boys’ needs,” Kalyebi said.
Through a partnership with Tirinyi Health Center, he will provide reusable sanitary pads and menstrual hygiene management kits to 1,000 students.
“As much as peace means to resolve conflicts without violence, it also means fair and equal access to basic needs and equal opportunities regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or any other form of identity that can easily be used as a form of discrimination,” Kalyebi said. “It’s from this understanding of peace, beyond just the absence of violence or conflict, that we believe this project supports not only girl childhood education, but also helps in building a strong community that stands on values of economic, social and political equity.”
Water Well for Peace and Sustainability
Bockarie will work with a team in Sierra Leone to construct a water well for the Excellence Academy, a secondary school in Robis. The community, with a population of about 1,000, is dependent on a small, nearby creek for all water needed for drinking, cooking, laundry and bathing.
He will partner with Joseph Kaifala, founder of the Jeneba Project and one of the original 100 Projects for Peace awardees, to construct the well. The two believe providing clean water will help improve education in the community because families won’t have to walk as far for potable water and won’t be subjected to as many water-borne illnesses.
“As an aspiring engineer from Sierra Leone with a goal of specializing in energy and resources and sustainable engineering, this award will help me to further build my skills,” Bockarie said. “Implementing this project will be a starting manifestation of the technical skills Wartburg engineering is instilling in me. In the long term, my vision is that all school-going children have equitable access to fresh water in their schools and communities.”