Wesleyan students see their campus as a hotbed for social activism, and we’re proud of this identity. We not only support the spirit of activism, but also work with the initiatives we are passionate about in order to achieve concrete goals. However, no matter how powerful and well-organized a movement is, it is challenging in the current political and economic climate to gather the necessary funding to spark social reform.
Thus, we find it especially exciting that two student-run projects are semi-finalists in the Dell Social Innovation Competition: “Hope for Women in Kibera: The Kibera School for Girls and Shining Hope Community Center,” and “Building a Music School for Ugandan Disadvantaged Children.” To win the competition, and receive $50,000 in funding, these projects need to progress through two rounds of voting before presenting their proposals to a panel of judges.
This funding would bolster the work of the Kibera project, which is striving to establish a medical clinic for women in Kibera, Kenya—an African slum where strong gender discrimination makes it difficult for women to gain access to crucial health services. The Ugandan project, on the other hand, plans to develop a music school in Uganda in order to reconnect Ugandan children with their cultural roots. According to the description of the project on the competition website, teaching music will “provide therapy and empower children with practical skills for a future of job creation and self-reliance.”
This issue of The Argus quotes Ari Tolman ’10, one of the student leaders of the Kibera project: “We only made it to the second round of the competition thanks to all the Wesleyan voters.” Thus, just as Wesleyan students support campus initiatives, so too can we help support these two incredible projects, and facilitate real social change outside of the Wesleyan community. If you are passionate about these projects, please go to www.dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com, read the descriptions, and vote these initiatives into the final round.
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