Young people making change happen: five cohorts of the Changemaker Foundation Programme
Reducing gender inequality through awareness raising, distributing mental health kits, female empowerment and mentorship sessions, agricultural innovations, sexual education programmes - these are all ideas for projects that groups of 15-17 year old Amala students have come up with to make change in their communities.
Amala’s Changemaker Foundation Programme enables young people to put their ideas into action. A collaboration with United World Colleges (UWC) and Rise, the programme commenced in 2021 in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Since then, 140 young people of 14 nationalities have embarked on the 20-week course, which includes workshops to support their journeys towards making change and access to further educational and training pathways.
Each year, the number of applicants to the Changemaker Foundation Programme has been rapidly increasing, so in September 2023 we expanded the programme to our second site in Jordan.
“Facilitating and coordinating the first Changemaker Foundation Programme cohort brings me so much joy! It’s incredibly rewarding to see students from diverse backgrounds meet, learn together, and become a family. They have been working on various skills including their leadership, communication, presentation and entrepreneurial skills. It’s amazing to see them growing and discovering their own great potential!”
Waqar facilitating a class of Changemaker Foundation Programme students in Amman
As with other Amala programmes, students demonstrate their competency across different areas throughout the course, rather than test-based learning. For the Changemaker Foundation Programme, students develop five core sets of skills: Leadership, Innovation, Wellbeing, Embracing Diversity, and Critical Engagement. They develop projects which address a need in their community.
This year, students’ projects in Kakuma ranged from hygiene initiatives to vegetable growing to poultry farming. Students in Amman were equally inventive, coming up with projects around keeping streets clean using robotics and youth employment.
Muna, a 16 year old Bosnian-Palestinian student on the programme in Amman, wanted to help promising university students who are struggling to pay the fees. She started a website where people can donate items that they do not need, such as books, clothes and appliances, and she resells them, with the proceeds going towards students’ fees. Mona’s project, Hand in Hand, is already having a tangible impact: she has collected fees for a first student.
In Kakuma, Daniel, a 16 year old Congolese student, looked into combatting climate change in the camp through his project. Nimo, a 17-year old Somalian student, started her project in order to fight early marriage in the camp.
Amala counts two alumni among the Rise Global Winners: Christian, Changemaker Foundation Programme alumnus in Kakuma Refugee Camp who was a Rise Global Winner in 2021, followed by Social Entrepreneurship alumna Joud in 2023.
Joud, 2023 Rise Winner, presenting to the first class of Changemaker Foundation Programme students in Amman.
Christian, who went on to study at UWC Dilijan, set up multiple projects in Kakuma Refugee Camp including Project 21KE, a poverty alleviation initiative. Christian developed a programme to teach sexual health education to his peers in the camp, as a way to reduce teenage pregnancy, leading to fewer girls having to drop out of secondary school.
Joud from Jordan launched Amal-Jo, which supports local small business owners, particularly women, to grow and expand their businesses. Joud recently came into the Amala centre in Amman to talk to the new Changemaker Foundation Programme.
Martin, who graduated from the Changemaker Foundation Programme in 2021, said that “this programme has changed many things within myself, as well as my community. It has changed my attitude, mindset and has given me a hope that no condition is permanent, everything changes like the seasons and also has reminded me that hard work pays off. I have hope, as do all of us UWC-Amala participants."
Find out more about the Changemaker Foundation Programme here.