Students at Campaign Collective client UWC Atlantic have been inspiring change in the world, following the creation of an innovative new app, developing projects to meet the UN’s sustainability goals, and inspiring audiences at a TEDx event in Swansea.
Students at the college recently launched AILEM, the first ever language app for refugees and asylum seekers. The app was created by Abobakar and Zakarya, who are refugees themselves, alongside Lucia and Xinny.
Abobakar, a refugee from Afghanistan on a full scholarship at UWC Atlantic, who was featured in the Times earlier this year, said: “Unemployment, discrimination, poverty and integrating into local education, are just the few examples of challenges that refugees when they arrive in a foreign country. But the one challenge that they all have to deal with is the language.”
AILEM has since been recognised by MIT for its Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Challenge, which invites young people every year to come up with technology solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in society.
A number of students have also been recognised for their ideas to bring about a lasting impact in the world, through meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Four student-led projects, including tackling environmental challenges, improving public health and providing education for developing nations, have received nearly £30,000 to help make them a reality.
And most recently, a group of 24 students at the college took part in the Swansea TEDx, which included two inspiring talks from students Ceirion and Christiana.
Christiana spoke about female empowerment and how we should all take a proactive approach to lifting the women around us, in her talk titled ‘Tomorrow is in Our Hands’. While Ceirion spoke about ‘the ripple effect’ of the love of a mother, and how grief can be turned into opportunity.
The stories follow the announcement earlier this year that the wider global movement, United World Colleges (UWC), has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The organisation received the nomination because of its mission to ‘unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future’.