#statedeptexchangealumni

[alumnities]

Local Volunteers Begin Constructing Compost Bins for "Building Soil and Community" Designs were finalized and construction is underway for a three-bin style composting system to be used for our community composting project in Lynchburg, Virginia. Can't wait to begin demonstrating how we can divert waste from the landfill and put nutrients back into the soil!

[alumnities]

On 03.12.2016, as part of YOUnified day to celebrate YSEALI’s 3rd birthday, Make Science Make Sense project successfully hosted the first offline event  - Science Fair 2016, which attracted nearly 300 students from high schools and universities in Ho Chi Minh city.

You can watch the event recap video at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAhUPrQHUHM

Make Science Make Sense (MSMS) is a non-profit project of science education about STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) for the community, sponsored by the US Department of State, YSEALI and World Learning. The project’s mission is enhancing and nurturing passion for science for the community, especially students in high schools and universities. MSMS uses the non-academic approach: simple, interdisciplinary and practical. MSMS holds the vision to develop into an open communication platform to provide science knowledge to the community on a frequent basis.

After 2 months of project launch, the event is the first milestone to inspire the public with curiosity to learn more about daily application of science in an interactive way. Joining Science Fair 2016, attendants got the chance to join exciting activities such as Booth Tour, Science Talk, Science Quiz and win lovely gifts.

The event was organized at US Consulate Ho Chi Minh city by 35 members and coordinators. In this event, all newly recruited members were also attending a welcome session. Make Science Make Sense now have total 53 official members, tutors and tutees in 3 big cities of Vietnam.

#MSMS  #YSEALI #YOUnified #WorldLearning #TIES

[alumnities]

PROJECT UPDATE: FIRST PHASE

Awareness Campaigns in Clean Energy Access for All and Energy Efficiency

The overall goal of the project is to conduct awareness and advocacy campaigns in energy access for all to build a nation-wide constituency of advocates for green and inclusive energy. This constituency will contribute to the crucial aim of reducing energy poverty (the absence of access to sustainable and affordable energy sources), which the majority of Malawian households are currently facing. The project managers. Admore Chiumia and Hastings Mkandawire, are leveraging the skills attained at Alumni TIES so that a wider community in Malawi can benefit from sustainable energy sources. They are accomplishing this by recruiting 1500 youth participants to support the attainment of clean energy access for every Malawian. The project involves energy fares in six selected institutions, presentations from students, games, poems, songs, quizzes, and study tours to three mini-grids in Malawi. 

Awareness campaigns have already been conducted in the selected institutions in Malawi. The second phase of the project will be study tours to mini-grids so that the youth participants can gain a practical understanding of alternative clean energy solutions.

Specific objectives to be attained by the project:

Enhance youth participants’ practical knowledge and professional skills in energy access needed to pursue long- term academic and career goals.

Conduct on site “energy fares” in six selected institutions (Mzuzu University, Mzuzu technical colleges, Lilongwe University, Lilongwe Technical College, Blantyre Soche Technical, and Malawi University of Science and Technology).

Cultivate youth participants’ practical, comprehensive, and nuanced understanding of the energy technologies i.e solar, hydropower 

[alumnities]

Nigerian Energy Ambassadors 2017

Following an application for a US Alumni TIES Small Grants after the ‘Access to Energy for all’ Seminar in Ethiopia in April 2017, we were awarded funds to carry out the Nigerian Energy Ambassadors Project. The project is proposed for participants from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. The sub-theme for Primary school students is the ‘Energy Summer School’, for secondary school students is ‘Waste-to-energy’ and for tertiary school students is ‘Energypreneurship’.

The Energy Summer School for primary school students started in August and was a lot of fun. The ‘energy’ from the children was contagious and they were keen to learn. Training sessions covered Renewable and non-renewable energy, solar PV, wind and hydropower systems, energy efficiency, water management, energy audits, solar home systems, electrical safety, etc. The children also completed a picture scrapbook, wordsearch puzzles, spelling bees, etc in their workbooks, conducted energy audits of their homes, watched cartoons on energy conservation and were presented with certificates at the end of the programme.

We congratulate the esteemed participants who are now our Energy Ambassadors. We also thank the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Alumni TIES, World Learning and the project team – Azizat ‘Sola Gbadegesin, Oluremi Hamid and Chimaobi Nna, for their support and dedication to the execution of this project.

Stay tuned for the next component of the NEA 2017 on ‘Energypreneurship’

Best regards,

Nigerian Energy Ambassadors

[alumnities]

‘Registraethics’ Project: Seminar for Court Registrars

The main activity of the "Registraethics" project was conducted yesterday. It brought together about 109 Court Registrars from the South West Region. It also saw the participation of four (04) Registrars-in-Chief from the North West Region. The theme of the workshop/seminar was 'Registrars and Collaborative Working Values'

[alumnities]

The students, faculty, staff, police officers and community members of Chinatown have truly enjoyed their urban garden! We have harvested many of the vegetables and herbs. Students were able to take home the vegetables and herbs to share with their family, churches and mosque. In addition, we donated almost 20 lbs of vegetables and herbs to the Bowery Mission homeless shelter. Each time I've been working in the garden, I can't help but notice people taking a look into the garden with a smile on their face or stopping to point out their favorite vegetables we have grown.

The urban garden provides a green space for students to enjoy and is aesthetically pleasing for the community. It helps reduce air pollution, storm water runoff, the heat island effect and promotes biodiversity. Through the educational workshops, students were able to understand the effects of climate change, collaborate with one another and take action.

Thank you World Learning and the U.S. Department of State for the opportunity to engage the community and raise awareness on climate  change issues!

[alumnities]

For the “FINE” project, Nabieva Firuza and Pulatova Aziza have conducted a series of trainings for girls in target zones. The main goal of the project is to implement capacity-building initiatives and to increase young women’s empowerment and economic participation.

The sessions were mainly delivered in the form of discussions and working groups. Participants found it valuable to discuss their financial challenges, such as unexpected spending and overhead costs.

The content of the first module of the training was developed to educate girls on planning and budgeting monthly income thereby improving their financial literacy. An existing manual for financial education was reviewed and adjusted to the needs of girls in four districts. How to manage savings was also one of the most discussed topics between the participants.

Many participants insisted that the topic should be a priority within the community, and should be delivered to other community members during community meetings. Financial literacy trainings are essential to Tajikistan, as it is a country in transition post-USSR. Improving financial literacy is one tool for furthering the education of the population and development of the country.

[alumnities]

To achieve the goals of the “FINE” project, activities have been started in four regions in the target zone (B.Gafurov, Buston, J.Rasulov, and Spitamen). To inform the target group about the project and it’s goals, informational meetings have been held in schools in each target zone. Collaboration has been very successful, especially in schools run by women. As a result, more then 180 girls are interested in participating in the "FINE” training!