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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. 2010-2011 Youth Leadership Grant Award Winners:
Tala Ahmadi: The Uniting of Strangers Through the
Hannah Ball-Brau: Hospitality by the Homeless
Minahil Choudry: Opening Doors with Open Minds
Clara Eder: Act for Autism
Lital Firestone: Teens Unite for Troops
Kikanae Punyua: Hospitality/Osiligi (Hope) Foundation
Aleena Warich: A Better Future for the Stranger Matt Bouvier, Katie Gorman, Kara Knights, Rebekah Lizotte, Erika Rothberg, Ian Whalen : Schools for Sudan 2009-2010 Youth Leadership Grant Award Winners:
Daniel Roza: Breaking Bread, Breaching Barriers 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 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...
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 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) 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 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... 2008-2009 Youth Leadership Grant Award Winners: Andrew Franklin
Diana Jeang Laila Handoo 2007-2008 Youth Leadership Grant Award Winners:
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 2006- 2007 Youth Leadership Grant Award Winners:
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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