Presented by the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative in partnership with UWC International, Young Aurora is open to all UWC schools and colleges and, since 2018, the African Leadership Academy. Its mission is to encourage, support, and showcase student-driven projects which address concrete humanitarian issues and offer solutions through innovative and sustainable approaches.
Since 2017, Young Aurora has provided student teams from the participating schools with the opportunity to enter a project proposal that aims to tackle a humanitarian issue affecting a community in the vicinity of their school. All proposals are evaluated according to their level of creativity, sustainability, quality of research and potential for impact. One winning team each year is provided with a financial grant to fund the further development of their project.
Young Aurora has helped a huge number of student projects create a lasting impact in their school communities. From supporting refugees to preventing the sexual abuse of children, and from reducing biowaste to protecting coral reefs – you can read about the winning and runner-up projects over the years at the bottom of this page.
UWC thanks the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative for their continued support of UWC students in their initiatives for meaningful change – helping them to put gratitude into action.
Young Aurora 2022-2023
Emerging victorious in this year’s Young Aurora award, students from UWC Changshu China impressed this year’s judges with their “Enlightenment” project, which uses a needs-based curriculum to empower rural young people.
The three finalists from Pearson College UWC, UWC Changshu China and UWC Mahindra College showed remarkable creativity and dedication in addressing their identified local issues. The winning team from UWC Changshu China will now receive 10,000 USD to develop their project, so that it can create long-term impact in the school’s surrounding community.
Past Young Aurora Projects
HEARTH PROJECT / PEARSON COLLEGE UWC
The project focuses on supporting individuals affected by substance abuse through community-based action and storytelling. By creating a youth network and raising awareness, the project aims to foster empathy and solidarity among Victoria’s youth.
Team member, Charvi, emphasises the power of youth involvement:
I believe in our project because I feel that it has a lot of potential to positively impact the opioid crisis in the way that it approaches the issue. Its focus on the involvement of youth is a crucial part of what makes me believe in its success. Youth carrying a drive for change is something this project utilises and supports. Their involvement makes this project sustainable and long-term to help make a long-term positive change in the surrounding community. While discussing this approach, I learnt the importance of youth involvement. I noticed the impact I could have as a youth in my community.
AQUAROOTS PROJECT / UWC MAHINDRA COLLEGE
The project addresses food insecurity and economic vulnerability in Maharashtra’s rural communities by implementing kitchen gardens and water filtration systems. This sustainable initiative empowers families to become self-sufficient, ultimately improving their quality of life.
A team member, Karma, explains the importance of grassroots initiatives:
My dedication to AquaRoots stems from a firm belief in the transformative impact of community-driven initiatives on breaking the cycle of poverty. In Mulshi Valley, witnessing families' struggles highlighted the necessity for comprehensive solutions. AquaRoots goes beyond providing immediate relief, empowering individuals through kitchen gardens and water filtration. This approach not only addresses food insecurity but also confronts water-related challenges, fostering improved health and economic stability. Small-scale projects like AquaRoots exemplify the profound change grassroots initiatives can bring to disadvantaged communities.
COMBILI PROJECT / UWC DILIJAN
This project addresses the issues caused by mounting levels of air pollution by finding effective ways to manage biowaste. Recognising that local communities in Yerevan (and cities worldwide) lack effective and sustainable systems for bio waste disposal, the Combili project creates small ‘urban garden’ models run by local children. The gardens turn biowaste, which contributes to toxic gas emissions, into fertile soil using modern composters. The project combines three core areas: education led by children who participate in workshops about gardening and composting; recreational – providing a community space for local people to enjoy; and a modern method of composting with tumblers taking 30-60 days to produce fertile soil.
Speaking about her belief in the project, team member Satoe from Thailand notes:
The beauty of this project is that it can be replicated globally. I believe in the strength of the idea that these small green pockets in each urban neighbourhood can bring about a major change in the mindset of the community. When our team went out to the capital to film the video, it changed me. We visited the massive rubbish dump, where we saw first-hand the overwhelming amount of waste and smelt the pungent scent of rotting waste. In my life, I was never exposed to something like this, so it had a big impact on me. I learnt that my understanding and exposure to global issues are limited, and it is the case for others as well. This made me want to promote this project even further to raise awareness of these issues.
THE BIN PROJECT / UWC SOUTH EAST ASIA (EAST CAMPUS)
The Bin Project aims to tackle the problem of food waste in Singapore through the use of data analytics and behavioural economics. By installing cameras on food waste bins, the project will track and classify consumer plate waste using AI object recognition. The team will then analyse the patterns and trends within the collected data and investigate the underlying causes of these results.
Drawing from behavioural economics, the hope is that they will then be able to create the ‘nudges’ needed to help change consumer choices. Already running in the UWC SEA (East) canteen, the Bin Project team hopes to expand the idea to canteens across Singapore.
Team member, Hanming, explains why the interdisciplinary nature of the project is so important to its long-term success:
The interdisciplinary nature of the project stands out most to me. We combine technology, behavioural economics, entrepreneurship, and public education to create a sustainable system. This multifaceted initiative suits the complex issue of food waste: each branch of the project helps cover for the weaknesses of the other, thereby creating a resilient movement that can withstand challenges. Behind this project is an equally diverse team, including a range of personalities, passions, and perspectives. In addition, we are supported by an extensive network of experts, from teachers to kitchen managers. As our initiative grows and incorporates an increasing number of stakeholders, it becomes more stable and accepted in the wider community. With our commitment, the Bin project will steadily create visible, tangible differences.
CORAL REGENERATION PROJECT / UWC EAST AFRICA
The Coral Regeneration Project is an existing service project on the Moshi and Arusha campuses at UWC East Africa, which aims to preserve and rebuild the coral reef and marine life at Fish Eagle Point near Tanga on the Tanzanian coast. This area of coastline has been significantly affected by dynamite and drag-net fishing resulting in large areas of broken or dead coral. The project aims to raise funds to finance the building of coral nurseries and artificial coral domes, which students submerge in the ocean during outdoor pursuit trips, providing a place for coral to grow and safe shelter for fish and other marine life to live and thrive. The team believes that restoring the coral will lead to an increase in the fish population and encourage greater biodiversity, thereby providing food and livelihoods for local communities.
Project team member, Felice, explains how much hard work has gone into making the project a success:
One thing that I have learnt from this project, is that someone can do anything if they really want to. As a group, we have been pushed to our absolute limits. If we weren’t moving 300-800kg coral domes out into the ocean and diving them down, we were cleaning the coral domes 16 metres down, to ensure a clean environment for marine life. Waking up at 4:30 AM to benefit from the high tide and move the raft out into the open ocean, which I never would have done back home. All this has become really something amazing for me.
The Lorax Project / UWC East Africa
The Lorax Project aims to tackle soil erosion and deforestation through the distribution of seed bombs with the help of local school students in Arusha, Tanzania. The bombs are marble-sized balls that contain seeds, soil and clay and are made at UWC East Africa as a CAS activity. The bombs will then be distributed both by UWC East Africa students and students from other local schools to help trees grow in the area. The team also plan to provide the local schools involved with a rainwater collecting system; providing them with clean drinking water which they can also use to water the trees they have planted in the dry season.
Team member Amitis from Iran shared their passion for the project:
Soil erosion is a huge problem in Tanzania and East Africa in general, but unfortunately, not many countries are trying to tackle it. Kenya, however, has been fighting against it with the help of seed bombs. Looking at their success rate, I believe that we have chosen the right method. In addition to that, by including local school children in the project and providing them with not only the seed bombs and the knowledge to take care of them, but also a rainwater collecting system, we will have a significant effect on their lives. This project will help hundreds of children have access to clean water, fruit trees and a safer school environment. I understand that our project is not going to solve the problem in the whole of Tanzania, but I believe that it is a big step in the right direction, and can one day grow into something as big as Seedballs Kenya. This project has helped me learn that if one is determined to have a positive impact, you can always find support and it has shown me that by reaching out and finding partners, we can make anything happen.
Seed of Hope / Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA
This team aims to empower young people at Malindza Refugee Camp by creating a youth hub for them that serves as both an online education centre and social space. Given the added challenges that young people in this refugee camp have faced over the past year and a half, the students hope to help alleviate the educational and mental health consequences of this period.
When reflecting on his work on the project so far, Seed of Hope team member Prince (who grew up in the DRC before moving to Zimbabwe as a refugee in 2017) said:
This project shows that young people do not only have big fictional dreams of making positive changes happen, but that we also challenge the traditional way of doing things by stepping out with more realistic and clear ways of changing the world. Working on this project has been a rare eye-opening opportunity for me to become more aware of my strengths and weaknesses. It also emphasized what my purpose is and what gives meaning to my life. And it has drastically shifted how I see the complexity of the humanitarian cause we seek to address.
Peer Listener Project / UWC Atlantic
This project is focused on the mental health crisis among young people. The team set out to build up a peer listening network at neighbouring schools based on a model that has been tried and tested at UWC Atlantic for 11 years, whereby students are trained and empowered to listen and help other students with their mental health issues. By bringing this same model to more schools in the region, the students hope to tackle the growing number of mental health issues among young people in their local school area.
Speaking about her belief in the project, team member Ellamay from Wales shared:
I believe in this project because I have seen first-hand the positive impact Peer Listeners can have on individuals and a community. I have seen the benefits of students feeling comfortable in approaching a peer about their struggles, and of Peer Listeners being equipped to recognise those who need support. I have also seen how when there are students actively providing support for mental health, the culture of talking about it in everyday conversations is more common, and the topic is altogether less taboo within the community. Having previously attended local schools in Wales, where the mental health of myself and my peers was not prioritised despite its declining state, I know of the dire need for a system of continuous recognition and support, and I believe that integrating peer listeners into local classrooms is the answer.
Beehive Divide / UWC East Africa
Beehive Divide is a project that aims to establish peaceful co-existence between the elephants and villagers in Sanya Hoyee village in Siha District, Tanzania. Due to its location, Sanya Hoyee encounters a human-elephant conflict where lives are lost and crops are destroyed. The team set out to build two protective, elephant-repelling barriers between the fields and elephant corridors – a beehive fence and a chilli fence with the ultimate aim of ensuring the protection of the endangered elephant species while enabling the Chagga community to thrive in both crop farming and beekeeping to increase food security and reduce poverty.
Six months down the line, the team have now completed the construction of 70 beehives from hardwood which will cover a 770 metre beehive fence ready to be erected in May 2021. The project will continue as a service initiative at UWC East Africa after the founding team members graduate.
Reflecting on their involvement in the project so far, team member Mariam Jusabani from Tanzania says:
We started off with a very small plan and had never imagined getting to this stage, I have learned that with determination, even a small initiative can prove to positively impact countless lives.
MedRangers / UWC Mahindra College
The MedRangers project started when a woman from Sadhana village told the team about her challenges in receiving medical assistance in rural areas. Further inquiry, through surveys and local mentors, revealed that medical malpractice in Mulshi-Taluka, caused by a lack of health education and medical assistance was worsened by socioeconomic, cultural, and infrastructural factors: Despite housing 68.4% of India’s citizens, rural areas receive only 25% of India’s health infrastructure.
MedRangers aims to improve health outcomes in rural Mulshi-Taluka through preventive and diagnostic approaches.
Primarily, this is achieved by conducting educational workshops on the science, symptoms, and treatments of prevalent diseases, basic first-aid skill training, and health-insurance schemes for school staff and villagers, and by facilitating further medical training for Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHA). For diagnosis, the team will organise health camps in Mulshi-Taluka to further increase access to medical assistance. Their aim is clear: “We aspire to empower the local population to make independent and informed decisions about their health.”
Speaking about what the team have learned so far with the project, team member Priyanka Chaharia shares:
While working on this project, I had the realisation that my will to contribute back to the community is not enough. We must work for what is desired by our stakeholders and not what we deem fit for them. We have to remain mindful that, when needed, sometimes the best thing we can do is to let our ideas go.
HER Journey / UWC South East Asia
The HER Journey initiative aims to advocate for and empower Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) from Singaporean households. FDWs often face linguistic and cultural barriers, employment conflicts and labour rights violations.
The team hopes to achieve this aim through a three-pronged approach: First, in collaboration with local NGOs, they are developing educational videos titled ‘Know Your Rights’ for FDWs that feature solutions to common labor rights disputes. Secondly, in their efforts to educate the public (especially employers), they designed the Empathy Challenge card game, where players roleplay as FDWs and employers, and negotiate solutions to challenges in their employment process. Finally, the team has also created podcasts based on interviews with FDWs, where they share their personal migration stories and advice for fellow workers.
Looking back at the journey the project has been on so far, team member Karen writes:
Our project has come a long way since the first liaison with the Migrant Workers’ Center and the Center for Domestic Employees in May 2019. We set clear goals for ourselves and are open to adjustments according to our limitations. We go over feedback and constantly make revisions. Although we’ve been scattered around the world over the COVID-19 outbreak, we persist to operate remotely.
Smokeless Kitchens / UWC East Africa
Propelled forward by the aim of reducing the damaging effects of smoke experienced in the kitchens of indigenous communities of the Chagga and Maasai tribes in Moshi, Kilimanjaro, the Smokeless Kitchens team set out a plan to sustainably source low cost, high quality smokeless stoves that are operated using environmentally friendly fuel. The team planned to bring about both health and social benefits, as by reducing the instances of chronic respiratory diseases and the amount of time that women currently spend each day collecting firewood, the women would be able to dedicate a greater proportion of their time generating income for themselves.
In the first six months after receiving the funding from the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, the team succeeded in building their first prototypes of the smokeless stoves, ready to start being used by the local communities. The project continues today as a service initiative being carried forward by current students at the school, after the original project founders graduated from UWC. By May 2021, despite the challenges they faced due to the pandemic, the team have been able to build six smokeless kitchens for six families in the Moshi community. Next year, they hope to build even more stoves, but this time without needing additional support from external organisations who have now trained up the team members to become self-sufficient in further developing and expanding the project.
For founding team member Yahaya Ndutu from Tanzania, who was himself diagnosed with a respiratory disease at a very young age due to smoke and dust, it is the realisation that “even teens, with the right motive and a structured organisation, have the power to enact life-changing projects” that will stay with him from the experience of developing the Smokeless Kitchens project.
Young Voices / UWC Atlantic
The Young Voices team found that the lack of civic engagement among young people in Wales to be giving rise to a host of societal issues, including deepening inequality, social exclusion and a culture of blame. As the team outlines, “at its core, our project embodies our belief that every young person should actively participate in our society in our capacity as citizens.”
They set about designing a peer-led civic education program for 13 to 18-year-olds with the aim of passing on all that they learned at UWC to help other young people become engaged and compassionate citizens of tomorrow, while also closing the gap they soon discovered between the civic awareness of teenagers from different socioeconomic backgrounds.
In its first six months of operation after the Young Aurora 2019 final, the team established the project as a weekly service initiative for other students to join at UWC Atlantic, they delivered their civic education programme at 5 different schools and they trained a new set of first years to design and deliver the workshops. The team also participated in a Welsh Government consultation on implementing votes at 16 in Wales – and the bill to lower the minimum voting age to 16 was successfully passed in November 2019.
Young Voices continues today as a service project at UWC Atlantic.
Precious Plastic / Pearson College UWC
Inspired by a Marine Science class in which the team took part in a beach clean up, the Precious Plastic team came face to face with the critical need for proper recycling practices, while simultaneously feeling disheartened by the lack of action taking place in the community to tackle this issue.
The result was a plan to build a small plastic recycling factory on campus – which the team has now successfully built with help from the funds they received from Young Aurora. The team also continues to meet during service hours and on weekends to collect plastic from the surrounding areas of the college, which are then recycled in the machine to produce beautiful products that the team are selling to generate profit to further fund the project.
Describing their passion for the project, the team explain
“we could not live with the UWC mission of creating a more sustainable future while knowing that tonnes of plastic were habitually being thrown out at our College. Even if our project can not solve the wider issue of plastic waste, we truly believe it can bring Pearson a step closer towards our ultimate goal of a sustainable future and we would be so proud if Pearson could also set an example for other schools and colleges in this regard.”
HOPE / UWC Changshu China
“HOPE” was founded in 2017 by UWC Changshu China students with the aim of promoting anti-sexual abuse education for children under 14 by directly delivering classes to local schools.
The aim was to bring about change in four ways:
1) weekly local teaching delivered by professionally trained student lecturers
2) improving public policy by cooperating with the local government to build a
comprehensive child protection system
3) training teachers in remote areas through an online live teaching platform
4) conducting in-depth research on sexual abuse through interviews and surveys with various social groups, thus developing different solution sets to the issue depending on the different groups they work with. Another aim of this research was to enable the team to write informed and well-evidenced proposals to submit to National Congress, urging them to include child sexual abuse prevention education into the national curriculum.
In 2018 – the year in which they entered and won Young Aurora – Project HOPE successfully established a cooperative relationship with the Changshu government which agreed to ensure that all children aged 6-14 in Changshu would be covered by the training.
Amaavasya / UWC Mahindra College
Amaavasya was founded to engage local communities in the surrounding UWC Mahindra College area, including men and boys, in a discourse around the stigma of menstruation in order to raise awareness around menstrual health and enable women to make informed choices regarding their menstrual practices.
The students’ approach took into account the interdependent nature of the causes of menstrual stigma and poor menstrual hygiene. They identified and supported local changemakers in addressing the issue via context-appropriate interventions, thus building capacity in the community for an enduring, sustainable impact. Their aim was to tackle the issue using a twin track approach: an educational initiative co-designed and executed by local changemakers in line with a Human Centred Design (HCD) methodology, and the facilitation of access to sustainable menstrual products, such as menstrual cups and reusable pads.
Amaavasya continues as a student-led local impact initiative at UWC Mahindra College today. Currently the students are working with self-help groups in 4 villages in the Mulshi and Kolvan Valley, Maharashtra.
Mpaka Peers / Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA
The Mpaka Peers project brought together UWC students and refugee youth at Mpaka Refugee Camp in eSwatini through academics, activities, and shared passions in order to inspire, aid, and encourage one another.
It began in 2017, before taking part in Young Aurora in 2018, with a group of UWC and refugee students meeting to discuss how their friendship and resources can be combined to create a peer support network for English and communication classes, tutoring and career advising workshops, sports for women and girls, and passion development workshops.
Throughout the school year that followed, UWC students and youth members got together to stimulate and facilitate creativity, improve schooling and career opportunities for the young refugees, and create lasting connections. The goals they set out with were to prepare students to advance in secondary and even tertiary education, create a space for female empowerment and wellbeing through sports at the camp, and encourage young people to explore talents such as writing and music in order to gain recognition and raise awareness for themselves and their families.
Mpaka Peers continues as a student-led project at Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA today, where new students can join year-on-year to continue working towards the aims that the original project team set when taking part in Young Aurora.
Kriyā Iron / UWC Mahindra College
Kriyā Iron was set up with three goals: addressing the pressing issue of anaemia in the rural areas surrounding UWC Mahindra College, raising awareness of micronutrient deficiencies and other nutritional concerns, and empowering women to improve their own health.
The students behind starting the project were Maya (Israeli/American), Kathryn (American), Ella (German/French), Shruti (Indian) and Drusilla (Tanzanian) – all UWC Mahindra College students at the time.
The project took a holistic approach to tackling anaemia, addressing it from three dimensions: preventive, curative, and social. They used Lucky Iron FishTM ingots to directly address anemia, collaborated with local NGOs Akshara and Family Planning Association of India to drive forward a conversation about health and nutrition, and empowered female participants in the process by placing the solution directly in their hands.
By 2018, the project succeeded in reaching out to over 80 households in which women reported regularly using the ingot. This means that close to 400 people were already benefitting from the ingot then, with an estimated reach of over 50% of the villages of Asde and Sawargaon.
DoGood.shop / UWC Robert Bosch College
The DoGood.shop was founded in the wake of Germany’s decision to take in more than 1 million refugees and the subsequent integration challenges that it brought up.
UWC Robert Bosch College students Mohamed from Egypt, Ravi from the UK, Imaculada from Angola, Kento from Japan and Haider from Pakistan set up the project with the aim of supporting refugees by providing a non-profit online marketplace to sell upcycled and handmade products made by refugees and other vulnerable people.
The project also provides an online platform for participating social organisations to gain more exposure, network with each other and fundraise by prompting customers to make additional donations when they purchase products. In the long term, the project is helping to empower refugees by providing them with IT training to work on the project themselves and by helping them gain the education and qualifications to find jobs.
Bravegirl Camp / Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA
BraveGirl Camp is a student-led gender equality initiative kickstarted in 2017 by then students Ellie (Chinese-American), Ike (Kenyan), Anna (Italian) and Shannon (Swazi). Thanks to the Young Aurora platform, the team successfully implemented the first BraveGirl camp in August 2017.
The project consists of a five night girls’ residency camp for 15-18 year old eSwartini girls from urban areas with the goal of providing opportunities to future female leaders in the country. BraveGirl takes a holistic approach to women’s empowerment, moving from a focus on personal goals and health towards the wider context of empowerment in eSwatini.
Since the project was launched with the help of Young Aurora, 150 girls from 10 local schools have taken part in the BraveGirl camp. They spend a week away from home, free to speak their thoughts, discuss ideas that may be shunned in their communities and learn that, as women, they can and will overcome the prejudices they might face and create a better future for Swazi society.