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The remarkable initiative displayed by participants in the Children of Abraham Peace Essay Contest has motivated us to invest in both the particular projects they have undertaken and also their personal development as our future leaders. These high school students have researched the Abrahamic religious traditions, investigating topics like peace, leadership, and social justice, and used that knowledge to propose a creative project to benefit their community, their nation, or the world. Our public interest leadership program is modeled after the highly successful micro-loan program for private businesses in developing countries started by Muhammad Yunus, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Youth Leadership Grants take the form of cash awards presented to 10th and 11th grade students on the basis of the creativity, relevance, and viability of their proposed projects. We have found that the grant awards have far reaching effects for these students, who have found themselves engaging with both family and community in new ways as they bring their chosen cause to the attention of concerned individuals. Please read on to learn a little about the creative enterprises that have been funded thus far.
Tala Ahmadi: The Uniting of Strangers Through the
Enjoyment of Soccer
Glenelg Country School
My project proposal is a world cup on a miniature scale. By partnering my school, Glenelg Country School, with one of high immigration, my project will be able to unite strangers as well as decrease common prejudices amongst the teammates. My project proposal promotes diversity, peace, and acceptance through a universal sport loved globally: soccer. Read More...
Hannah Ball-Brau: Hospitality by the Homeless
Washington International School
Through N Street Village in Washington, DC, Hospitality by the Homeless will provide the residents a rare opportunity to demonstrate their hospitality by creating, cooking and serving meals to the community around N Street Village.
Read More...
Minahil Choudry: Opening Doors with Open Minds
Glenelg Country School
Opening Doors with Open Minds” will center its efforts on the school, Isfundiyar Model School, which gives the children a chance to grow, learn and develop using education, manners and skills to provide a brighter future. Read More...
Clara Eder: Act for Autism
James Madison High School
By offering a summer drama class that teaches social skills to both autistic and non-autistic students, I hope to help autistic people to develop social skills and be accepted by their peers and to foster understanding of autism among non-autistic teens. Read More...
Lital Firestone: Teens Unite for Troops
Walter Johnson High School
The goal of Teens Unite for Troops is to reconnect soldiers who have returned from the warfront with modern society. The best way to do this is by initiating a way that their peers, teenagers, can work with and speak with soldiers to help welcome and reacquaint them with civilian society once they have returned home. Read More...
Kikanae Punyua: Hospitality/Osiligi (Hope) Foundation
Glenelg Country School
My project will work on changing and teaching the Maasai people the importance of education and gender equality in the Maasai tribe. Read More...
Aleena Warich: A Better Future for the Stranger
Glenelg Country School
My project addresses the lack of education in third world countries especially in Pakistan. The World Education Foundation is non profit organization that provides educational opportunities to the less privileged youth. It sponsors individual students who could not otherwise afford to go to school, by making a commitment to pay for their fees and school related expenses. Read More...
Matt Bouvier, Katie Gorman, Kara Knights, Rebekah Lizotte, Erika Rothberg, Ian Whalen : Schools for Sudan
Group application, Hudson High School
After studying about the Sudan in their World Cultures Latin America/Africa (WCLAA) class, students were motivated to take action. They were inspired by the role education played in the lives of Sudanese refugees and in particular the life of Emmanuel Jal. Energized by the lyrics of Jal’s music, students organized a "pay per view" assembly and raised over $1400 for his organization, Gua Africa. The funds will be used to build schools in southern Sudan. Read More...
2010-2011 Matching Grant Recipients
Fahad Ahsan, Glenelg Country School
Special Education and Training Center in Lahore, Pakistan Read More...
Victor Crentsil, Glenelg Country School
“Help to Orphans (H20)” Read More...
Veronica Ferris, Washington International School
“Youth Dinners with Shelter Residents” Read More...
Rishabh Khatri, Glenelg Country School
“Health for Haiti” Read more...
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Daniel Roza: Breaking Bread, Breaching Barriers
Mercersburg Academy, 11th Grade
My project is an attempt to foster understanding, acceptance, empathy and, ultimately, acts of compassion between Israeli and Palestinian teenagers. I realize that Israelis and Palestinians stand on opposite sides of a chasm of mistrust, each viewing the other as an existential threat, each focusing on differences, neither appreciating commonalities. Read more...
Rishabh Khatri: Health for Haiti
Glenelg Country School – 10th grade
After a crippling earthquake, many efforts have been made for immediate needs, but the future Haiti is hazy, clouded by unsettling dust. Haiti is wounded by infectious diseases and a population plagued with illness. Read more...
Shayna Solomon, Ezra Wexler, and Sarah Schwartz: Social Action For Everyone (SAFE)
Montgomery Blair High School – 11th Grade
Our project will bring teens of different religious backgrounds together to complete social works projects that emanate the ideals of compassion. We will address the everlasting problems in our society, such as poverty and homelessness. Read more...
Veronica Ferris: Hands on
Washington International School – 11th Grade
Homelessness is without a doubt a social need, because homeless individuals can not have constant shelter or receive jobs or benefits at the highest level without having a home. The project is designed to educate people of the multiple facets of homelessness to better understand why it occurs and how to end it. Read More...
Victor Crentsil: Help To Orphans (H20)
Glenelg Country School – 10th Grade
Before the recent earthquake, UN estimated that one-third of Haitians lacks clean water and those who have access to it spend more time fetching water than working or studying. The recent earthquake has made clean water even less available in Haiti. Read More...
Fahad Ahsan: Operation Smile
Glenelg Country School – 11th Grade
My project will assist individuals with birth deformities by providing them with direct medical care. More specifically, my project will fund medical operations for people in Ecuador who suffer from either the cleft pallet or the cleft lip. Read More...
Andrew Franklin
Andrew L. Franklin will arrange the initial project startup as project manager and David Weeks will act as his faculty advisor on this project. Partnership arrangements will be made with the following organizations: The Baltimore Station, Glenelg Country School, Baltimore City Master Gardener’s Club, The Goldseeker Foundation and the Parks and People. Read More...
Diana Jeang
Green Trading is a student-run high school-based program inspired by the system of carbon trading. The goal of Green Trading is both to educate and to encourage action. Before winter break 2009, students at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland can sign up to participate and fill out a form that tells where they plan to travel and by what means. Read More...
Laila Handoo
Kashmiri women and children are shunned by society due to mental illnesses. As a result, they are faced with a life of hopelessness and depression. I seek to correct this injustice and help them attain the proper treatment they need. Currently, due to war in Kashmir, mental illnesses have increased from 30% to 70%. Read More...
Devika Jaipuriar is an 11th grader at
Glenelg Country School, envisions an
outreach project to teach children the
basics of environmental awareness.
Earth Girl! is a comic book about a
superhero who is trying to save the
world from pollution. The comic book
will be a launching pad for a broader
program involving a tour of Earth
Girl to elementary and middle schools to discuss environmental
stewardship. Read More...
Jonathan Kesten is a senior at Montgomery Blair and
soon will be a Georgetown Hoya. In his work with
(SGU) School Girls Unite (an international non-profit
promoting girls' education worldwide), two benefit
concerts have been held which have raised enough
to support over 80 young women in Mali, Africa to
attend school.
"Thanks to the micro-grants from the FFC, School Girls Unite have
been able to tackle even more education and justice related issues in
the developing world. Currently SGU is working on a bilingual ‘Action
Guide’ cataloging the progress of SGU and capturing the initiative
needed to solve global education problems in our modern world.
School Girls Unite has raised $4,822.87 (almost 5k) in the concerts,
thanks to the gracious support from the FFC.”
- Jonathon Kesten
Priya Agarwal-Harding, currently
studying at Wellesley and formerly a student
at Glenelg Country School, works with an
organization in India called PRAYAS, which
offers shelter and other aid to victims of
child-trafficking. Priya was able to spend
some time during the winter of 2007-2008
and the summer of 2008 working again
with PRAYAS in India. The organization has launched a project they
are calling “Girls’ Empowerment” (G-Power for short) in honor of
her effort, which Priya will direct utilizing the award money and other
money she has raised.
"The Fund for the future of our Children’s support was instrumental inhelping me raise these resources and be an advocate for PRAYAS and
to begin the G-power project in India. My initial essay that I submitted
to the Peace essay contest in 2006 which received Honorable Mention,
and the FFC’s subsequent support for my work with PRAYAS helped
me maintain my focus and enthusiasm for this work and became
pivotal in helping me be an advocate for the issue of child trafficking
in India. Through this support I was able to raise a total of $8,500 over
the course of two years. Two thousand of which was provided to me
on a grant by FFC. I hope to return to PRAYAS next year to continue
my work with G-power and to continue to learn about child trafficking
issues." – Priya Agarwal-Harding
Preview Priya Agarwal-Harding's PRAYAS video
Melissa Mergner
is a senior at the Communication
Arts Program at Montgomery Blair High School
in Silver Spring, Maryland, and also attends the
Visual Arts Center magnet program at Albert
Einstein High School in Kensington, Maryland.
She has written and directed several short
documentaries, including: "Legacy of Peace"
about Japan’s atomic bomb victims, "Woody
Guthrie: Voice of the Common Man" about
the legendary singer-songwriter, “Invisible and
Invaluable” about the plight of farm workers,
"The President as Commander-in-Chief" about the importance of
foreign affairs in the presidential election, "Speaking Truth to Power"
about farm labor activist Baldemar Velasquez, and "Forgotten War,
Unforgettable Aftermath" about the Korean War. Her films have won
awards or have been shown at over 50 film festivals across the U.S. She
also produced a video for Velasquez's song "Song for Urbano," about
the tragic death of a migrant farm worker in North Carolina. She
received a leadership grant from that organization to make a film about
her Korean grandfather and the issue of reunification in Korea to be
completed in 2009. She also traveled to India in the summer of 2008
to produce a film about child trafficking in India. She was chosen as a
Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar at New York University, where she will
study film at the Tisch School of the Arts starting in the fall of 2009.
"I am very grateful to the Fund for the Future of our Children for
the micro-grants I received to support my film projects about Korean
reunification and child trafficking in India. I have been making
documentaries since I was 12, but the process of filmmaking doesn’t
seem to get easier. The costs of the equipment and supplies, as well as
travel, can be overwhelming. The support I received from the FFC not
only helped me to pay for these costs, but also gave me confidence to
take on more projects. Having an organization like the FFC endorse
my work has made me think of myself as a real professional and has
encouraged me to stick to an artistic vision that many people would
think of as too idealistic. The support I’ve received from FFC has made
idealism seem like realism. I will always be indebted the organization
for that belief." –Melissa Mergner
Preview Melissa Mergner Quicktime Movies
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